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The Book of Fishes 


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1 














THE BOOK of FISHES 


Game Fishes, Food Fishes, Shellfish and Curious 
Citizens of American Ocean Shores, 

Lakes and Rivers f 


With 134 Illustrations 
Color Plates of 52. Familiar Salt and 
Fresh-Water Fishes 

Fishes and Fisheries of Our North Atlantic Seaboard by John Oliver 
La Gorccy Miami Aquarium: Our Heritage of the Fresh Waters 
by Charles Haskins Townsend, director of the New York Aquarium: 
Certain Citizens of the Warm Sea by Louis L. Mowbray: Curious 
Inhabitants of the Gulf Stream by John T. Nichols, Curator of 
Recent Fishes, American Museum of Natural History: Devil-Fishing in 
the Gulf Stream by John Oliver La Gorce, Miami Aquarium: Salmon: 
America’s Most Valuable Fish by Hugh M. Smith, Former United 
States Commissioner of Fisheries: Oysters: A Leading Fishery 
Product by Hugh M. Smith: Life on the Grand Banks by Frederick 
William Wallace: Color Plates from Life by Hashime Murayama, 


Published by 

THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 
Washington, D. C., U. S. A. 

1924 



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FOREWORD 


S INCE the earliest days of the white man’s settlement in North America, 
when the seemingly unlimited supply of food fish taken from the waters 
of the Grand Banks beckoned French fishermen-explorers to American 
shores and the courageous Pilgrims at isolated Plymouth planted fish as 
fertilizer with their seed to derive sufficient crops from Mother Earth to 
keep alive the struggling colony of home seekers, the products of the waters 
of the United States have become increasingly important to the growing 
Nation. 

These same fresh and salt water areas, in addition to being reservoirs 
of food, have offered unending recreation and healthy sport to people in 
every walk of life, young and old, because the thrill of search and contest 
between man and fighting fish, be it angled for with bent pin or giant hook 
of steel, has few equals. 

The Book of Fishes, it is hoped, will be of interest and value to fisherman 
and layman alike because it presents an authoritative life story of the 
most important of the fishes to be found in American waters which are 
so vital a factor in the Nation’s food supply. 

So rich are American coastal waters, rivers and bays in variety of fishes 
that to describe comprehensively every known species would necessitate 
a dozen encyclopedic volumes, too costly for general ownership. There¬ 
fore, out of the great treasure of ichthyological material gathered by 
the National Geographic Society, the chapters, photographic illustra¬ 
tions and color plates of this volume have been selected, and the most 
famous fishes of the diverse regions of the country are described and 
pictured. 

The paintings from life of ninety-two species of fishes, especially, offer 
means of easy identification of the fisherman’s catch. These, together 
with the amazing biographies and life histories, derived from extensive 
scientific and practical study, comprise a book which will prove, it is 
believed, a welcome addition to your natural history library. 

John Oliver La Gorge. 


Washington, D. C., 1924. 


EXTENSIVE BIOGRAPHIES 

of the following fishes familiar to American waters. 


Name Page 

Alewife. 6o 

Bass, Black. 95 

Bass, Calico. 96 

Bass, Rock. 95 

Bass, Sea. 70 

Bass, Striped. 69 

Bluefish. 70 

Bonito. 71 

Bullhead. 93 

Butter-fish. 61 

Catfish, Spotted. 93 

Codfish. 38 

Crappie. 96 

Cusk. 56 

Drum, Fresh-water. 107 

Eel. 109 

Flounder, Summer. 38 

Flounder, Winter. 38 

Haddock. 38 

Halibut. 55 

Herring. 61 

Kingfish. 71 

Lobster. 67 

Mackerel. 59 

Mullet. yi 

Muskellunge. 105 


Name Page 

Perch, Pike. 109 

Perch, White. 9 ^ 

Perch, Yellow. 109 

Pickerel, Eastern. 100 

Pike. loi 

Pollock. 37 

Salmon, Atlantic. 63 

Sauger. 109 

Scup. 63 

Shad... 59 

Sheepshead. 71 

Smelt. 65 

Squeteague. 69 

Squirrel Hake. 56 

Sturgeon, Common. 55 

Sturgeon, Lake. 104 

Swordfish. 63 

Tautog. 61 

Tilefish. 65 

Trout, Brook. 97 

Trout, Lake. 99 

Trout, McCloud River Rainbow. 100 

Tuna. 59 

Whitefish, Common. 106 

Whiting. 57 





















































COLOR PLATES 


Name 

Alewife {Pomolobus pseudoharengus) . 

Amber Jack (Seriola dumerili) . 

Angel-Fish {Angelichthys isabelita^ Pomacan- 
thus arcuatus^ Pomacanthus paru and Hola- 

canthus tricolor) . 

Atlantic Salmon {Salmo salar) . 

Barracuda {Sphyraena barracuda) . 

Black Bass, Large- and Small-mouth {Microp- 
terus salmoides and Micropterus dolomieu). . 

Black Grouper {Mycteroperca bonaci) . 

Bluefish {Pomatomus saltatrix) . 

Bonefish {Albula vulpes) . 

Bonito {Sarda sarda) . 

Brook Trout {Salvelinus fontinalis) . 

Buffalo Trunkfish {Lactophrys trigonus) . 

Bullhead {Ameiurus nebulosus) . 

Butter-fish {Poronotus triacanthus) . 

Butterfly Fish {Chaetodon ocellatus) . 

Calico Bass {Pomoxis sparoides) . 

Catfish {Ictalurus punctatus) . 

Codfish {Gadus callarias) . 

Cowfish {Lactophrys tricornis) . 

Cow Pilot {Abudefduf saxatilis) . 

Crappie {Pomoxis annularis) . 

Crawfish {Panulirus argus) . 

Cuckold {Lactophrys triqueter) . 

Cusk {Brosmius brosme) . 

Dolphin {Coryphaena hippurus) . 

Drum, Fresh-water {Aplodinotus grunniens ).. 

Eel {Anguilla rostrata) . 

Flounder, ^tffsmer -(Paralichthys dentatus).... 
:^^smf&crf=^Vl^^r'{Pseudopleuronectes ameri- 

canus) . 

Four-eyed Fish {Chaetodon capistratus) . 

Gag {Mycteroperca microlepis) . 

Grunt (Haemulon sciurus) . 

Haddock {Melanogrammus aeglifinus) . 

Halibut {Hippoglossus hippoglossus) . 

Herring {Clupea harengus) . 

Kingfish {Menticirrhus saxatilis) . 

Kingfish (Scomberomorus regalis) . 

Lake Trout {Cristivomer namaycus'h) . 

Lobster, American {Homarus americanus).. . . 

Mackerel {Scomber scombrus) . 

Margate Fish {Haemulon album) . 

Marlin {Tetrapturus imperator) . 

Moon Fish {Selene vomer) .. 

Moray {Lycodontis funehris) . 

Muskellunge {Esox ohiensis) . 

Mullet {Mugil cephalus) . 

Mutton Fish {Lutianus analis) . 

Nassau Grouper {Epinephelus striatus) . 



Name Page 

Octopus {Octopus americanus) . 156\ 

Parrot-Fish {Pseudoscarus guacamaia) . 182 

Pickerel, Eastern {Esox reticulatus) . 119 

Y'ke. {Esox lucius) . 119 

Pike-Perch {Stizostedion vitreum) . 125 

Pollock {Pollachius virens) . 39 

Pork Fish {Anisotremus virginicus) . 175 

Portuguese Man-o’-War {Physalia arethusd).. 178 

Queen Trigger-fish {Balistes vetula) . 179 

Rainbow Trout {Salmo irideus shasta) . 118 

Red Grouper {Epinephelus morio) . 145 

Rock Bass {Ambloplites rupestris) . 113 

Rock Hind {Epinephelus adscensionis) . 180 

Runner {Caranx ruber) . 155 

Sailfish {Istiophorus nigricans) . 154 

Sauger {Stizostedion canadense) . 12'^ 

Scup {Stenotomus chrysops) . 49 

Sea Bass {Centropristes striatus) . 73 

Sea Horse {Hippocampus) . 178 

Sergeamt Major {Abudefduf saxatilis) . 182 

Shad {Alosa sapidissima) . 46 

Shark Sucker {Echeneis naucrates) . 180 

Sheepshead {Archosargus probatocephalus ).... 75 

Silver King {Tarpon atlanticus) . 152 

Smelt {Osmerus mordax) . 5^ 

Soldato {Holocentrus ascensionis) . 175 

Spade Fish {Chaetodipterus faber) . 176 

Spanish Mackerel {Scomberomorus maculatus) 149 

{Tetrapturus imperator) . 157 

Spiny Lobster {Panulirus argus) . 153 

Squeteague {Cynoscion regalis) . 72 

Squirrel Fish {Holocentrus ascensionis) . 175 

Squirrel Hake {Urophycis chuss) . 43 

Striped Bass {Roccus lineatus) . 7I 

Sturgeon {Acipenser sturio) . 42 

rubtcundus) . 120 

Swordfish {Xiphias gladius) . 51 

Tarpon {Tarpon atlanticus) . 152 

Tautog {Tautoga onitis) . 48 

Tilefish {Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps) . 53 

Tuna {Thunnus thynnus) . 45 

{Chelonia mydas) . 158 

Turtle, Hawksbill {Eretmochelys imbricata) . . 158 

Whitefish {Coregonus clupeiformis) . 122 

White Angel {Chaetodipterusfaber) . 176 

White Perch {Morone americana) . 115 

Whiting {Merluccius bilinearis) . 43 

Yellow Jack {Caranx ruber) . 155 

Yellow Perch {Perea fiavescens) . 124 

Yellow Tail {Ocyurus chrysurus) . 181 


Page 

47 

155 

176 

50 

143 

112 

146 

74 

151 

74 

116 

179 

III 

49 

177 

114 

III 

39 

179 

182 

114 

153 

179 

43 

150 

123 

126 

40 

40 

177 

146 

181 

39 

41 

47 

76 

149 

117 

54 

44 

148 

157 

147 

177 

I2I 

75 

144 

145 




























































































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i 



Photograph by H. Armstrong Roberts 

SURF FISHING ON THE ATLANTIC COAST 


Fishes and Fisheries of Our North 
Atlantic Seaboard 

By JOHN OLIVER LA GORGE 

Vice President of the Plational Geographic Society 


T he story of the fishes and fisheries 
of the North Atlantic seaboard of 
the United States is one that has 
the fascination of a romance. 

Whether we consider the biology of the 
species which are the prizes of the fishing 
fleets, the methods of reaping this harvest 
of the seas, or the stern battle against the 
depletion of the supply, there are stirring 
chapters at every turn. 

The world annually levies a tribute 
upon the seven seas of half a billion dol¬ 
lars’ worth of fish, of which Europe col¬ 
lects approximately half, the United 
States nearly a third, and the remainder 
of mankind the other sixth. 

In terms of weight, the portion col¬ 
lected by the United States amounts to 
2,600,000,000 pounds, including shellfish. 
Three-fourths of this annual harvest 
reaches the markets in fresh condition; 
the remainder goes to the consumer as 
canned, salted, and smoked fish. 

The North Atlantic fisheries of the 
American seaboard reach from the New¬ 
foundland Banks to the Delaware River, 
and represent the major sea fisheries of 
the Atlantic coast, producing some seven 
hundred million pounds of sea food an¬ 
nually. 

Considering the fisheries of the United 
States in these waters, one finds upward 
of fifty different kinds of fish and shell¬ 
fish called for by fish-eating citizens, help¬ 
ing to swell the total annual catch. Eigh¬ 
teen kinds have more than two million 
pounds each to their credit in the national 
larder. 

Biologically, perhaps the most interest¬ 
ing of all the species that figure in the 
returns are the Flatfish—Flounders and 
Halibuts—with their changing forms and 


migrating eyes. By what strange quirk 
of Nature the left eyes of species inhab¬ 
iting cold water usually migrate to the 
right side of their heads, while the right 
eyes of most species inhabiting warm 
water journey over to the left, no scien¬ 
tist will venture a guess (see Color Plate, 
page 41). 

When they are hatched, all Flatfish are 
of orthodox symmetrical shape, with con¬ 
ventionally placed mouths and eyes, but 
after they swim around in ordinary fashion 
for a little while, they exhibit a tendency 
to turn to the one side or the other. 

Immediately after this peculiar tend¬ 
ency begins to develop, the eye on the 
lower side seems to acquire a wanderlust. 
Stephen R. Williams, who studied this 
change, says that the optic nerves are so 
placed in the youngling as to provide for 
the migration. 

THE ORIGIN OF FLATFISH 

The first sign of the transformation is a 
rapid change in the cartilage bar lying in 
the path of the eye that is to migrate. 
Then comes an increase of the distance 
between the eye and the brain, caused by 
the growth of facial cartilages. In the 
Winter Flounder, three-fourths of the 
120-degree migration takes place in three 
days. What if that should become a 
human habit! 

The extent of the eye migration and of 
the flatness of the species is closely related 
to its habits. The Sole and the shore 
Flounder, which keep close to the bottom, 
are more twisted than the Halibut, the 
Sand Dab, and the Summer Flounder, 
which are more given to free swimming. 

How this deviation from the conven¬ 
tional bilateral shape arose is a mystery. 


2 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



A NOVA SCOTIA FISHERMAN HAULING IN HIS NET 

As pressure on the world’s food supply of every kind increases, knowledge of the migration, feeding, 
and breeding habits of fish is essential to the formulation of intelligent fisheries legislation in order to con¬ 
serve the abundance of the ocean’s supply of this palatable and nourishing food. 






































FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


3 



Photograph by International Newsreel 


THE “SACRED CODFISH” IN THE BOSTON STATE HOUSE 

In the new Hall of Representatives, in Boston, hangs a wooden Codfish “as a memorial of the impor¬ 
tance of the Cod Fishery to the welfare of this Commonwealth,” in accordance with a resolution passed in 
1784. It may be seen above the transom of the door. Next to the Herring, the Cod is the world’s most 
important economic fish, and the Cod fisheries of the Newfoundland Banks are the oldest in North America. 
Georges Bank, southeast of Gloucester, also is a favorite fishing ground. 


Whether there came a “sport” in the 
family tree at some stage of its history, 
or whether the deviation grew from a 
gradual modification of the adults under 
the influence of their environment, can¬ 
not be said. If it came from the latter, 
selection naturally favored its appearance 
earlier and earlier in the development of 
the fish, until it reached the larval stage. 
Earlier transformation would be disad¬ 


vantageous, since there is a lack of plank¬ 
ton—that imperative, if almost micro¬ 
scopic, food supply of the newly hatched— 
at the sea bottom, and the transformed 
Ashlings would find a scarcity of prov¬ 
ender at a critical period in their lives. 

It has been noted that many transfor¬ 
mations do occur even in the egg; but the 
precocious youngsters thus hatched have 
less chance to survive, and hence are less 





















































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FISUKS OK OUR NORTH ATLAN'TIC SKABOARI3 


5 


able to transmit to the future the tend¬ 
ency to earlier change. 

THE ANADROMOUS FISHES 

Some species that help constitute the 
fisheries of the North Atlantic are an- 
adromous—that is, they spend most of 
their lives in the sea, but come into fresh 
water to spawn. Among these are the 
Salmon, the Shad, the Alewife, the 
Sturgeon, and the Striped Bass. On the 
Pacific coast the most striking instance 
of this is the Chinook Salmon, which 
ascends the Columbia River for a thou¬ 
sand miles, and the Yukon for two thou¬ 
sand, to find its spawning ground. 

How acute this instinct has become is 
shown by a Canadian experiment. Sal¬ 
mon were accustomed to run up the 
Nicola River to spawn, and at one place 
they passed an island in midstream. It 
was noted that they always took one 
channel around this island and neglected 
the other. So a dam was built across the 
channel they were accustomed to use and 
the other was left open. 

At the next run, when the fish ap¬ 
proached the barrier across the channel 
their ancestors had used in passing the 
island, not a single one of them would 
take the other channel, d’hey all turned 
back instead. 

THE eels’ spawning HABITS 

Sometimes anadromous fishes, wander¬ 
ing up rivers, get into landlocked lakes. 
Usually they do not prosper, but die out in 
their new environment. It often happens, 
however, that such anadromous fishes as 
the Branch Herring and the Salmon, get¬ 
ting into waters out of which they are un¬ 
able to find their way, so change their 
habits in the course of time that variations 
from their ancestors set in, which mark the 
beginnings of the formation of new species. 

Other fishes of commercial importance 
in North Atlantic waters have habits of 
spawning directly opposite to the anad¬ 
romous species, and,they are called catad- 
romous fishes. 'I'he true Kel is the most 
striking example of this class of fish. 

Until recently, the location of its 
spawning ground was an unsolved mys¬ 
tery of the sea. Finally a Danish expe¬ 
dition succeeded in locating it in the 
region between Bermuda and the Lee¬ 
ward Islands, where the water reaches 
the depth of a mile. 


Although they are so nearly alike that 
the layman cannot recognize the differ¬ 
ence between them, and although their 
breeding grounds partially overlap, the 
European and American species neither 
cross nor visit one another’s shores. 

The eggs are laid at depths of about 
650 feet and the larvai continue to rise 
toward the surface as they grow. At this 
stage, and until they reach their respective 
shores, they are mere bits of ribbon, so 
transparen t that the vertebrae of thei r back¬ 
bones may be counted without difficulty, 
d'he only difference yet found beween the 
European and American species is that the 
European has a few more vertebra,*. 

EELS AT THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 

Both species start out, mayhap together, 
over a route neither has traveled before. 
But when they come to the parting of the 
ways the European Elver, with a three 
years’ journey ahead of it, says good-by 
to its American cousin, which has only a 
year’s swim to get to its future home. By 
what means this unerring homing instinct 
is transferred from the parents, which 
never return, to the offsprings, that must 
travel a road they have never been over, 
is a mystery that will probably long await 
a solution. 

The spawning habits of fishes differ as 
greatly in other respects as in tho.se just 
mentioned. Some eggs are laid at the 
surface and left to their fate, with no 
responsibilities of any kind for the par¬ 
ents; others are heavy enough to sink to 
the bottom. Some fishes, like the King 
Salmon, lay their eggs on the stream bed, 
and the male covers them with gravel, 
after which male and female drift help¬ 
lessly down the stream, tail first, and die. 

THE LUMPFISH A DEVOTED GUARDIAN 

Some species, like the Sticklebacks and 
the Lumpfish, guard their eggs until they 
are hatched. I'he courage and devotion 
of the male I.umpfish to his task has 
often been noted. He eats nothing while 
guarding the eggs, but constantly fans the 
egg mass to keep it free from silt and 
bathed in flowing water. He never deserts 
his post save to drive away some intruder, 
and finally, when the eggs are hatched, 
he is a picture of exhaustion and hunger. 

The males of other species, including 
some of the common Cathshes, carry the 
eggs in their mouths until they hatch. 


6 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



International Newsreel 


BLESSING THE FISH OF THE SEA 

A special service was held at St. Dunstan’s, London, when the fish and market produce from the 
salesmen of Billingsgate and Leadenhall markets were blessed. 









FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


7 



PREHISTORIC FISH 

When a fish dies it leaves no friends. The flesh is soon devoured, the gelatinous substance of the 
bones decays and leaves the phosphate of lime content to be absorbed by water. Hence comparatively 
few geologic traces of fish remain. 


The females of still other species, follow¬ 
ing the example of the Lobster, glue their 
eggs to the undersurface of their bodies. 
The male Sea Horse opens up a little 
pocket beneath its body, takes in the 
eggs from its mate, and carries them in 
the tiny pouch Nature provided until they 
hatch. Hundreds of perfectly formed Sea 
Horses are thus liberated at a hatching, so 
tiny in size the human eye can hardly 
distinguish them, yet perfectly formed. 

Not all fishes are oviparous. Some are 
viviparous, such as most Sharks, the Saw¬ 
fishes, the Rosefishes, the Rockfishes, the 
Surf Fishes, and many species of top 
minnows. 

The number of eggs laid varies widely 
in different species. Scientific census- 
takers of Uncle Sam report that the Her¬ 
ring lays about 25,000, the Sturgeon 
about 635,000, the Halibut as many as 
3,500,000, while the Cod has been known 
to lay more than 9,000,000. 

One can gauge the perils through which 
the various species of fish pass from the 
egg state to maturity by the number of 
eggs they spawn. It is demonstrable 


mathematically that if ah the eggs of a 
single female Herring were to produce 
similarly productive generations, in ten 
years the oceans would be overflowing 
with Herring, and all the other creatures 
of the sea literally would be crowded out 
of existence. 

ENEMIES OF FISHES 

Indeed, it has been proved that, if only 
three eggs from each female of each spe¬ 
cies should develop into adult fish simi¬ 
larly productive, fish life would multiply 
so rapidly that the seas would soon be¬ 
come vastly overcrowded. What does 
happen is that less than one egg in two 
million in the Cod produces a reproduc¬ 
ing Cod, and even in the Herring less 
than one in ten thousand successfully 
runs the gamut of existence. Hard, in¬ 
deed, would be the road of life insurance 
companies of the fish world! 

In this connection it is interesting to 
note that Nature’s need for females in 
many species exceeds the requirement for 
males. In the case of the Conger Eel, 
the ratio is nineteen females to every 



8 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph from U. S. Bureau of Fisheries 

THE GENTLE ART OF TAGGING FISH 


Government scientists have been doing noteworthy work in investigating the life habits of migratory 
food fishes by taking thousands of them, placing identification tags on their tails, and then liberating them. 
Wet gloves are worn by the experts during the operations because dry hands remove the glutinous veil 
from the scales of the fishes and expose them to the attacks of many forms of parasites. 


male, and in that of the Herring, three 
females to every male. 

The perils fish have to face are innu¬ 
merable. Huxley estimates that only 5 
per cent of the Herring destroyed an¬ 
nually by all Herring enemies in the 
world find their fate at the hands of man. 

The other 95 per cent are the victims 
of whales, the porpoise family, seals, and 
other mammals; Cod, Haddock, Mack¬ 
erel, Sharks, and other fishes; gulls, gan- 
nets, and other birds; and the thousand 
and one other enemies that lurk in their 
wake at every stage, from the newly 
spawned egg to the adult fish. 

MANKIND, AN ASSOCIATION OF HERRING 
CATCHERS 

How tremendous this toll of the other- 
than-man enemies of the Herring actu¬ 
ally is may be gathered from the state¬ 
ment that man himself is credited with 
an annual catch of nearly eleven billion 
Herring. On that basis we must con¬ 
clude that over two hundred billion Her¬ 
ring annually fall victims to their enemies 
in the sea—enough to load a solid fish 


train reaching around the earth at the 
Equator. 

Huxley has called mankind an associa¬ 
tion of Herring catchers, and if those 
fish be counted that are caught by fish 
which feed on them and in turn feed us, 
he probably has not missed the mark much. 

He also reminds us that single schools 
covering half a dozen square miles may 
contain more than three billion Herring; 
yet many schools have been recorded that 
covered an area of 10 square miles. 

The migration of fishes forms one of 
the most fascinating romances of the sea. 
We have seen how the Shad, the Salmon, 
and other species spend their adult lives 
in the sea and seek fresh water in which 
to spawn; how others, such as the Eels, 
spend their lives in rivers and lakes and 
seek salt water at spawning time. 

The Mackerel and the Flying Fish fam¬ 
ilies wander wide from their usual haunts 
at spawning time. Other species follow 
the great schools of Menhaden about the 
seas, “a full dinner pail” being the first 
consideration in their lives as in ours. 

However, for the most part, keeping a 



FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


9 



Photograph from Ewing Galloway 

DRYING FISH AT DIGBY, NOVA SCOTIA 


When fish is dried in the open air, it sometimes must be protected from sunburn by canvas awnings, 
and from rain at night by coops. Although fish is also dried in some factories in large steam-heated shelf 
driers, this method tends to be too rapid, so that the fish is dried only on the surface, instead of uniformly 
throughout. 


complete check on the movement of the- 
fishes of the seas is a problem still await¬ 
ing solution. The exact winter home 
of the common Mackerel is unknown, 
though a few have been caught with Cod 
lines in deep water off Grand Manan, and 
others have been taken from the stom¬ 
achs of Cod on Georges and La Have 
Banks, as well as off the coast of New 
Jersey. 

For a long time it was supposed that 
the Hickory Shad spawned in Chesa¬ 
peake Bay, but investigations in that re¬ 
gion from 1912 to 1922 failed to reveal 
a single member of the species under six 
inches long present in those waters. Its 
spawning grounds have not been located. 

TAGS TO TELL THEIR STORIES 

Likewise, the spawning grounds of the 
Red Tunny have never been discovered. 
This fish has successfully eluded every 
effort to trace its tracks through the deep 
seas. 

So, also, it is with the Squeteague, or 
Weakfish. Appearing in Chesapeake and 


Delaware Bay waters in April, and in 
Buzzards Bay in May, they stay until 
October, but where they go then is still 
a secret of their own. 

The migratory movements of Herring 
are so complex that, although ichthyolo¬ 
gists have been trying to fathom the mys¬ 
tery for many years, a complete solution 
has not yet been found. 

During a recent summer the United 
States Bureau of Fisheries decided to 
make a careful study of the migrations 
of the Cod, the Pollock, and the Haddock. 

It has been tagging 10,000 of these 
fish—about 75 per cent Cod, 20 per cent 
Pollock, and 5 per cent Haddock—and 
turning them loose, in the hope that the 
fishermen of the waters they inhabit 
will return the tags of those caught, with 
information about the locality in which 
they were taken, a record of the date, and 
of their size. 

For each tag returned, the fisherman 
receives 25 cents and the thanks of the 
Bureau of Fisheries. 

In the tagging operations the fish are 


10 


THF*: BOOK OF FISHES 



© L’nderwood and Underwood 


STURGEONS TAKEN FROM THE DELAWARE RIVER, NEW JERSEY 

The Sturgeon fishery has been so intense as to make the taking of these fine fish to-day a comparatively 
rare occurrence. The largest one taken this year measured lo feet 3 inches long, weighed 450 pounds before 
being dressed, and yielded 103 pounds of roe. With the meat selling for 50 cents a pound and the roe for 
I2.75, the fish brought 1^350. 





FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


11 


caught with hook and 
line at a depth of not 
more than 20 fath¬ 
oms. The uninjured 
fish is laid on a wet 
board, measured, and 
its exact length re¬ 
corded. A metal tag 
stamped U. S. B. F. 
is then securely at¬ 
tached to the upper 
part of the tail, near 
the base, and the fish 
is released after a 
record is made of 
its number, its size, 
where released, etc. 
It is confidently ex¬ 
pected that many 
fishermen will go to 
the trouble of assist¬ 
ing the Government 
by reporting to Wash¬ 
ington when such 
fish are taken. 

A study of the 
anatomy of fishes 
and the evolution of 
some of their organs 
throws an interesting 
light on life in the 
ocean. 


A FEMALE LOBSTER “IN BERRY” 

The number of eggs produced by a female Lobster varies from 3,coo 
to 75,000, according to its size and age. They are glued to the under¬ 
surface of her body, and carried around for about ten months before hatching 
(see text, page 21). 


WHY FISH HAVE 

SPHERICAL EYES 

In order to see 
under the water, the 
eyes of the fish had 
to be constructed on 
lines differing some¬ 
what from those of 
man and land ani¬ 
mals. Cutting open a 
fish’s eye, one discovers that the crystal¬ 
line lens is almost a perfect sphere in¬ 
stead of the somewhat flattened lens of 
land animals. This arrangement is nec¬ 
essary to sight in the water, since the 
difference in density between the lens and 
the water is so slight. The result is that 
fish are extremely nearsighted. 

The fish’s power of hearing is decidedly 
muffled, and it is believed that what we 
know as the ears are solely organs of 
equilibration, as they partially are in man. 

The sense of taste appears to be largely 
wanting in fish. Their tongues are with¬ 
out power of motion and lack delicate 


membranes. They swallow their food 
very rapidly and usually without mastica¬ 
tion, further than getting it small enough 
to gulp it down. 

FISH, LIKE MEN, LIVE ON AIR 

Air dissolved in water offers fish what 
little oxygen they need, and the oversup¬ 
ply they get when out of water is fatal 
to most species, though some, like the 
Catfishes, can live for a considerable time 
out of their native element. A man uses 
thousands of times as much oxygen as 
a fish. 

The air bladders or swim bladders of 




PREPARING HERRING TO BE SMOKED: LOG REPORT, NOVA SCOTIA 

No fish contributes so largely to the support of the human race as the common Herring. It is so im¬ 
portant and abundant in the fisheries that it is often called “King Herring.” It swims closelv packed, in 
enormous schools, often over areas of 6 to 20 square miles, and the annual catch in American and European 
waters is nearly two billion pounds. In Maine, quantities of young Herring are canned as sardines. One 
authority has estimated the annual destruction of Herring by man as upward of eleven billion fish, or seven 
fish to each person in the world. 






FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


13 



CANNING LOBSTER MEAT 

The Lobster forms the principal means of livelihood in many New England communities and supports 
a fishery from Labrador to Delaware. The toothsomeness of the American variety was early recognized, 
and a regular fishery has existed on the Massachusetts coast for nearly a century. The fishing grounds 
are being depleted rapidly, the size and number of Lobsters caught are diminishing; hence the center of 
the fisherv has shifted northward, first to Maine and then to the Canadian provinces. 


fishes help them to solve their respective 
problems of hydrostatics admirably. Bot¬ 
tom fishes have small ones and species 
that range between the surface and the 
bottom have relatively large ones. The 
gas with which air bladders are filled 
is secreted from the blood in most species. 

FROM LUNG TO AIR BLADDER 

The evolution of the air bladder from 
a lung and the perfection of the gills to a 
point where they furnish oxygen enough, 
and therefore render lungs useless, may 
be traced in species still existing. In 
more primitive fishes the air bladder has 
a tube connecting it with the throat, and 
instead of being an empty, gas-filled, 
sealed sac, it is a true lung, made up of 
many lobes and parts and lined with a 
network of small blood vessels. The Gar 
Pike has a lunglike air bladder, and gulps 
air from the surface of the water. As 
the oxygen-assimilating gills develop in 
going up the scale of fish evolution, the 
air bladder becomes more a float and less 
a lung, until the latter use entirely dis¬ 
appears. 


The major fins of fishes correspond 
strikingly to the limbs of land mammals. 
Those back of the gills are known as the 
pectoral fins and correspond to the arms 
of humans. If the bones to which they 
are attached are examined critically, they 
will be found somewhat similar to the 
shoulder girdle of land mammals. 

Below the pectoral fins are the ventral 
fins, which correspond to the hind legs of 
quadrupeds. The dorsal fin on the back, 
the caudal fin at the root of the tail, and 
the anal fin beneath the body are used to 
maintain equilibrium or direction. 

nature’s breeding methods 

Nowhere is the art of camouflage 
more strikingly employed than in marine 
life. The master breeder of the ages. 
Nature, has provided certain, if very slow, 
methods of eliminating the unfit from 
reproduction. 

One method is by tests of brute 
strength, as in the battles of bull seals; 
another is by the elimination of the slug¬ 
gards, as in the pursuit of the Herring 




14 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



© H. Armstrong Roberts 

AN ATLANTIC FISHERMAN MENDING HIS NETS 


The gear with which the ocean fishermen comb the seas for food for man is of many kinds and of divers 
types. The capital invested in the fishing fleets of the North Atlantic is in the neighborhood of ^ioo,ooo,cxx). 



FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


15 



THE SOURCE OF CAVIAR 


The picture shows Russians taking the fish eggs for making this famous delicacy. 


by the Mackerel. A thousand and one 
methods are available. 

None is more nearly certain among 
fishes than that which removes those 
failing to make proper use of the art 
of camouflage. Note the hues of a Her¬ 
ring in the color section (see Color Plate, 
page 47). Its back corresponds to the 
shades of the water in which it thrives; 
viewed from the air, it has low visibility. 
Its belly corresponds to the appearance of 
water when viewed from beneath the sur¬ 
face. The fishes best protected by their 
camouflage escape their enemies most 
frequently, and therefore have a better 
chance to reproduce. The ones that are 
least protected fall victims more easily, 
and therefore are less likely to reproduce. 

USING THE ART OF CAMOUFLAGE 

So, even if ever so little in each genera¬ 
tion, the process goes on—ever the better 
fitting each and every thing that repro¬ 
duces life to the environment in which 
its fortunes are cast. 

The Flounder, the Halibut, or the Sand 
Dab, lying on the sand, has harmonizing 
blotches imprinted all over the upper part 
of its body, imitating the various kinds 
of sand on which it lies, whether that be 


common brown sand, crushed coral, or 
rotting lava. The least successfully ca¬ 
mouflaged individuals face the greatest 
peril and the most successfully concealed 
ones enjoy the greatest safety. 

Man’s succeSvSesin breeding horns off the 
ox, the long nose off the wild boar, and 
great size into draft horses, are but a few 
passing examples of throwing Nature’s 
processes into high gear and hastening 
the transformation. He has done less in 
this respect with the fishes than with 
almost any other form of life, for the rea¬ 
son that he has had less control over them. 

But, even at that, he has been able to 
breed pugnacity into fishes, as witness the 
fighting fish of Siam, where the natives 
have fishfights as exciting to them as 
are cockfights to the masses in Spanish 
America. 

While not a fish, the Lobster, belong¬ 
ing to the crustacean group of animals, 
supports one of the most interesting and 
important fisheries of the American 
shores of the North Atlantic. 

The Lobster, biologically, is a closer 
relative of the spider than of the fish, and 
the problem of saving the Lobster fish¬ 
eries from utter depletion is one of the 
most difficult with which the fish cultur- 
ists have to deal. 



16 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by Arnold L. Belcher 

PART OF THE FISHING FLEET AT ANCHOR NEAR THE CUSTOMHOUSE TOWER 

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 


The American Lobster (see Color 
Plate, page 54) is found only on the eastern 
coast of the United States. Its known 
range covers a strip of the North At¬ 
lantic reaching from Labrador to North 
Carolina, with the Maine and lower Ca¬ 
nadian shores as the region of its greatest 
commercial abundance. This strip of 
water is from 30 to 50 miles wide and 
from 6 to 600 feet deep. 

THE lobster’s HABITS 

Frorn the close of its early free pelagic 
life to its old age, which often stretches 
into decades, the Lobster never leaves the 


sea bottom of its own accord. Its ex¬ 
ternal world is the ocean floor, and it is 
content to stay there. 

Having considerable power of locomo¬ 
tion, it wanders around as winter ap¬ 
proaches, from the shallow inshore waters 
to the deeper ones of the loo-fathom line, 
searching for water of comfortable tem¬ 
perature and for suitable food, and at¬ 
tending to the duties of reproduction. 

Its instincts constantly lead it to con¬ 
ceal itself, sometimes to take its prey un¬ 
awares, and at others to hide from its 
natural enemies. 

It walks over the sea floor on its slender 










FISHKS OF OUR NORTH ATUAN l'IC SEABOARD 


17 



Photograph by Press Illustrating Service 


CLEANING FISH IN QUAINT ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND 

Many men spend practically their entire lives as fish cleaners. Even in so humble a trade rivalries 
crop out, and there are a number of claimants for the international championship in fish dressing. 


legs, which are provided with brushes of 
sensitive hairs, \\ith its large claws put 
forward to offer little resistance to the 
water, it keeps its ^ffeelers waving back 
and forth continually to detect danger as 
well as to discover game its eyes may 
have overlooked. 

SCAVENGER OF THE SEA-FLOOR 

The buoyancy of the water makes the 
Lobster light on its feet in its native en¬ 
vironment, but its body weight is too 
great for its legs when out of water. 

Though a great scavenger and tending 
to be nocturnal in its search for food, it 
is believed that the Lobster prefers fresh 


food whenever that is available. Fresh 
Codfish heads. Flatfish, Sculpins, Sea 
Robins, Menhadens, and Haddocks make 
excellent bait, but balls of putrid, slack- 
salted Herring seem just as attractive. 

When hungry, the big crustacean will 
burrow in the sand like a ravenous pig 
rooting for grubs, and it has been known 
to attack even a full-sized Conch, break¬ 
ing its shell away, piece by piece, and 
gluttonously devouring the soft parts. 

The Lobster is a cannibal by nature, 
preying on its weaker brethren, and did 
not the conditions uncier which it is 
hatched favor its immediate and wide dis¬ 
persion, it would largely exterminate itself. 






18 


HANDLING TUNA: Sr. MARGARETS BAY, NOVA SCOTIA 

A giant fish being hoisted from the spiller net after it had been killed. Specially constructed boats are used because of the great weights of the Tuna. Before the 

kill great care must be used in handling it since its wide, sinewy, V-shaped tail could crush or capsize a boat. 










FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


19 


Like dogs, Lobsters have frequently 
been observed to drag dead prey to some 
secret spot, bury it, and then mount guard 
over the cache, ready to defend it against 
all comers. And often many grim battles 
are fought over such caches. Indeed, few 
of the giant Lobsters that have been taken 
are without numerous scars that tell in no 
uncertain language of pitiless struggles to 
which they have been party, where quar¬ 
ter was neither asked nor given. 

In the American Museum of Natural 
History in New York a giant Lobster is 
preserved whose living weight was 34 
pounds. It was captured at Atlantic 
Highlands in 1897. The Smithsonian 
Institution has one whose living weight 
is estimated at 25 pounds. 

Dr. F. H. Herrick, the author of the 
United States Bureau of Fisheries’ strik¬ 
ing study of the American Lobster, thinks 
that all of the thirteen titans he lists as 
weighing more than 20 pounds were not 
giants by nature, but rather simple favor¬ 
ites of fate, which allowed them to live to 
a riper age than their smaller fellow- 
creatures. Good luck never deserted 
them until they became stranded on some 
inhospitable beach or entangled in some 
fisherman’s gear. Such Lobsters as these, 
he believes, have weathered the perils of 
at least half a century. 

THE MOLTS OF THE LOBSTER 

Few living creatures have such striking 
habits of changing their clothes as the 
Lobster. It begins to molt or discard its 
outgrown clothes the second day after 
hatching, and continues to do so with de¬ 
creasing frequency until it has ceased to 
grow at all. 

Nowhere else in Nature is the molting 
process so striking, so critical, or so 
abrupt. 

When the old shell becomes too small 
a new skin begins to grow underneath it. 
When this growth nears completion the 
Lobster becomes a “shedder,” ready to 
cast off not only its old shell, but even the 
lining of its esophagus, stomach, and in¬ 
testine. 

Specimens under careful observation 
have been found to be restless and un¬ 
easy as the time of the molt approaches. 
Suddenly there comes a break where the 
tail joins the shell. The Lobster then 
turns over on its side, bends itself in the 


shape of a “V,” with the break at the 
apex. Pressure is applied, and gradually 
the rear end of the shell breaks loose 
from the new one beneath. 

“wire pulling” a claw 

Step by step the process of liberating 
the imprisoned body from its outgrown 
armor sweeps forward until finally the 
claws are withdrawn through the narrow 
openings. Presently, with a mighty ef¬ 
fort, the Lobster emerges from its old 
coat of mail, casts off the linings of its 
digestive tract, and steps out, full-pano¬ 
plied in a soft new shell. 

The area of a cross section of the flesh 
in the largest part of one of its big claws 
is four times greater than that of a cross 
section of the second joint, through 
which it must be drawn. The process, 
therefore, reminds one of pulling wire 
through the holes of a drawplate. 

From six weeks to three months are 
required for the soft-shelled Lobster to 
become a hard-shelled one again. 

The Lobster has many enemies, but, 
next to man and his alluring traps, the 
Codfish ranks as its worst foe. With an 
appetite that doesn’t stop at a hard shell 
up to eight inches, and with a particular 
taste for young Lobsters from two to 
four inches in size, the Codfish is a tre¬ 
mendous competitor of the Lobster palace. 

During their younger lives. Lobsters 
play into the hands of millions of foes in 
the sea, for it is not until the fourth or 
fifth stage that they leave the surface for 
the bottom. It is not until this period 
that caution seems to dawn in them and 
guide them to hiding places on the sea 
floor. In this care-free period vast schools 
of surface-feeding fish strain the water 
through which they chance to pass as 
effectively as might a towed net. 

MESSMATES PRESENT THEMSELVES 

Though only a few parasites of the 
Lobster are known, it has many mess¬ 
mates. Barnacles affix themselves to its 
shell and cement their tentlike coverings 
thereon; various kinds of Mussels insin¬ 
uate themselves into attractive depres¬ 
sions in the carapace and joints. Tuni- 
cata sometimes fasten themselves on the 
undersurface of the body, between the 
legs. Tube-forming Annelida, lacelike 
Bryozoa, and various forms of algae make 






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FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


21 


themselves unbidden guests, which the un¬ 
easy host can cast ofF only when it molts. 

Grain-eating birds swallow their food 
whole and, with the aid of gravel or other 
hard material, pulverize it in their giz¬ 
zards. The Lobster handles the situation 
differently. It chews its food before 
passing it into its mouth. The cutting 
teeth of its outer mouth parts chop the 
material into mincemeat, which is passed 
into the mouth proper in a slow stream 
of fine particles. From there the food 
reaches the stomach, which is divided 
into two parts—the forward section for 
storage and the rear compartment for 
sorting, straining, and digesting the food. 
Between the two are three teeth, one 
upper and two lower, which, like upper 
and nether millstones, grind the food to 
its appropriate degree of fineness. 

WHAT SELF-AMPUTATION MEANS 

When one examines a Lobster care¬ 
fully it is seen that the two great claws do 
not terminate alike. The one ends with 
a large crushing type of pincers and the 
other with a seizing type. One of the 
strange things in connection with these 
great claws is that Nature has given the 
Lobster power not only to amputate them 
in case of danger, but to grow others in 
their place after amputation occurs. 

Imagine a man with his hand caught in 
a machine suddenly giving a severe jerk 
and severing his arm at the elbow! And 
then imagine him going off to himself 
and growing another arm to take the 
place of the lost one! That is compara¬ 
ble to what the Lobster does. 

In a census of more than 700 Lobsters, 
7 per cent were found to have thrown 
one or both great claws, and these showed 
every stage of the regenerative process. 
Nature has arranged matters so that no 
tendons or large blood vessels cross the 
breaking point, hence there is little bleed¬ 
ing at the operation. 

That the self-amputation of the claw 
is a matter of will is shown by the fact 
that when put under an anaesthetic, the 
Lobster “forgets” to amputate the cap¬ 
tive member. 

GLUING HER EGGS FAST TO HER BODY 

When the female Lobster lays her eggs 
she turns over on her back, using her 
large claws and her tail-fan as a tripod 
to support herself. She flexes her abdo¬ 


men to make a sort of pocket, to which 
she glues the eggs fast. An 8-inch female 
will lay about 5,000 eggs, a lo-inch indi¬ 
vidual about 10,000, and a 19-inch one 
some 75,000, there being about 6,000 eggs 
to the ounce (see page ii). 

MANY MYSTERIES OF THE SEA 

The eggs are carried about for ten 
months. After hatching, the larvae spend 
from three to five weeks irresponsibly 
floating around near the surface, some¬ 
what lacking in the powers of coordina¬ 
tion and orientation. During this time 
they undergo four molts. At the third 
molt after hatching the Lobsters begin 
to take on the characteristics of the adult. 
At this stage the instinct to desert the 
surface and seek the bottom suddenly 
asserts itself, and the Lobsterling settles 
down to. its new environment to eat and 
grow, reaching maturity in five or six 
years. 

While the ocean literally teems with 
life, man has learned to make compara¬ 
tively small use of it, and the list of fishes 
fit for food is infinitely longer than the list 
of food fishes. The things yet to be 
found out about marine creatures are 
vastly more numerous than the things 
already discovered. 

Imagine a race living somewhere on 
table-lands towering above our atmos¬ 
phere, and possessing craft lighter than 
swan’s-down; and then imagine them 
launching out on the surface of the oceans 
of air, with clouds forever shutting out a 
view of the earth below. 

Now and then one of their craft might 
drop a dredge. The sounding tube might 
sink into the soil of a cornfield or the 
mud of a river bank. 

LIFE UNDER INCONCEIVABLE PRESSURE 

The dredge might capture a bumblebee 
or a butterfly. It might conceivably get 
a field mouse or a pine cone. But, what¬ 
ever it got, how little that would be com¬ 
pared with the vast number of things that 
would escape! 

And so it is with our knowledge of the 
sea and the vast numbers of creatures 
that inhabit its depths! Even on the 
floor of the deepest trench in the abysmal 
region of the sea’s bottom, where no ray 
of light ever reaches, where Stygian dark¬ 
ness is perpetual, where all but freezing 
temperatures never cease, and where in- 


22 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 




HOW A CRAB DISCARDS ITS OUTGROWN OVERCOAT 

The difference between a hard-shell and soft-shell crab is simply one of time. Every now and then 
the crab needs to grow a little, so its body gets soft and its hard shell splits open. It is then enabled to 
pull itself out of that shell and to grow while a new one is in the process of forming. When this process 
of growing and hardening is completed, it ceases to be a soft-shell crab and once more joins the ranks of the 


hard-shells. This change takes place several times a 

conceivable pressures prevail, the miracle 
of life still goes on! 

In some of the ocean depths the pres¬ 
sure exerted would be equal to that of a 
block of limestone three feet square and 
six feet high resting on a square inch of 
surface. A creature five feet long with 
an average girth of four feet would have 
to sustain a pressure of some 20,000 
tons. 

In size the denizens of the deep seas 
range from microscopic to mammoth 
creatures. Occasionally huge hulks of 


season. 

flesh of a tough, fibrous nature, unlike 
that of any known creatures, are washed 
ashore. One such hulk was 20 feet long, 
40 feet around, and weighed many tons. 
It was believed to be a fragment of some 
giant of the sea floor, torn loose by a cat¬ 
aclysm of the deep. 

RELATIVE AREA AVAILABLE TO MARINE 
AND LAND FAUNA 

The area of the sea is three times that 
of the land. Its average depth is more 
than two miles. The sea has 138 times 


FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


23 



Photograph from Canadian Motion Picture Bureau 

PACKING SARDINES 


Sardine packing had an early origin on the Maine coast as a more lucrative outgrowth of the Herring 
industry. The quantity of canned fish has increased by leaps and bounds, Salmon ranking first and the 
Sardine second. The total value of canned fishery products was more than ^46,000,000 in 1921. 


as much territory 12,000 feet below sea- 
level as the land has 12,000 feet above. 

While man and the terrestrial fauna 
are able to command only the surface of 
57,000,000 square miles of land, the ma¬ 
rine fauna has 140,000,000 square miles 
of sea, with scores, if not hundreds, of 
depth zones over most of this area, each 
with its own characteristic forms of 
life. The water level of the oceans would 
have to be lowered 10,000 feet to bring 
about an even division of the areas avail¬ 
able for life of marine and terrestrial 
faunas. 

With the great existing disproportion 
in area between the land and the sea, it is 
evident that the human race, with its 


seemingly insatiable mass appetite, will 
have to look more and more to the sea 
for its food. 

THE RESULTS OF OVERFISHING 

And yet on every hand one already 
sees the results of overfishing on many 
of the species now entering the fish 
markets. 

The anadromous fishes, particularly 
the Shad and the Salmon, are growing 
scarcer and higher-priced with each pass¬ 
ing year. 

Between overfishing and stream pollu¬ 
tion, the fresh and brackish coastal 
waters are seeing their fisheries depleted 
rapidly toward the vanishing point. 








24 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Ewing Galloway 


BUYERS MATCHING FINGERS IN THE DIVISION OF BARRELS OF FISH AMONG THEM 

“Mora,” or finger matching, is a very old Italian game. It is played either for wagers or for fun and 
the Italians are very skillful at it. Shore Haddock, landed only a few hours after being caught, enjoy an 
eager demand at twice the price of offshore Haddock. 


The Atlantic Salmon has disappeared 
from many rivers. Along the Maine 
coast the catch has dwindled to one-sev¬ 
enth of what it was in 1889. The Hou- 
satonic, the Thames, and the Saugatuck 
are Connecticut rivers that once were na¬ 
tionally famous for their Salmon, but 
which now yield none. 

The Shad is going the way of the Sal¬ 
mon. The supply in the Potomac and the 
Susquehanna is gradually declining. In 
the Connecticut River the catch in 1923 
was only one-tenth as large as that of 
1903. The Hudson and the Merrimac 
know this fish no more. 

Similarly alarming conditions occur 
among other species. The Smelt has dis¬ 
appeared from the Naugatuck, the Striped 
Bass from the lower Hudson and the 
East River. Twenty years ago as many 
Weakfish were caught off the northern 
New Jersey shore in a week as now are 
taken in a season. 

The same condition prevails in the 
shellfish fisheries. Oysters, in spite of 
Governmental and State watchfulness., 


are disappearing from beds where once 
they were plentiful. 

The story of the constant yearly deple¬ 
tion of the Lobster fishery is told in every 
area where the fishery exists. 

THE DECLINE OF THE LOBSTER FISHERY 

In colonial times Lobsters were so plen¬ 
tiful that even the poorest of the people 
might feast to their heart’s content on this 
succulent crustacean. 

Even as late as 1889 the catch in the 
United States reached a total of 30,000,- 
000 pounds, which sold for |8oo,ooo— 
less than three cents a pound. Ten years 
later the catch was only half as large, 
while the price had more than doubled. 

In 1880 Maine produced 14,234,000 
pounds, which sold for less than two cents 
a pound, as compared with 5,545,000 
pounds in 1922, which sold at 26 cents a 
pound at the wharf, and heaven only 
knows at how much to the ultimate con¬ 
sumer. The catch of Maine alone, in 1880, 
was greater than the total catch from Dela¬ 
ware Bay to the Canadian shore in 1922. 


FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


25 


Where stream pollution is the chief 
cause of the decline of the fisheries, 
nothing except radical protective legisla¬ 
tion to save the streams will avail. The 
Government has found that a pound of 
bark to 30 gallons of water will kill Bass 
in one day, and that even a pound of chips 
to seven gallons of water is fatal to Sal¬ 
mon fry. 

If such simple pollutions as these de¬ 
stroy fish by the wholesale, what destruc¬ 
tion is wrought by oil and tar, sludge and 
bilge! 

Overfishing may be combated in two 
ways—by artificial propagation and by 
restricting the catch, either as to season 
or as to size—in short, applying common 
sense. 

Artificial propagation has proved its 
value in the case of fresh-water and an- 
adromous fishes. The Shad fishery con¬ 
tinues only because the U. S. Bureau of 
Fisheries has preserved it by artificial prop¬ 
agation. The same is true of the Salmon. 

THE “dangerous AGe’’ IN FISHES 

But for marine fishes, authorities differ 
as to the value of methods at present em¬ 
ployed. As new knowledge of the sea is 
gathered, however, there come reasons to 
believe that conditions may be established 
under which artificial propagation can be 
made a success. 

It has been found lately that there is a 
dangerous age for the fry of fish, just as 
there is for the children of men. We 
know that more children die between the 
day of their birth and their second birth¬ 
day than during the next twenty years, 
because of the high mortality from dis¬ 
eases of infancy. 

Likewise, it has been demonstrated that 
the first few weeks of a fishling’s career 
constitute a high mortality period, in 
which thousands die where one survives. 

PLANKTON AND ITS RELATION TO 
FISH LIFE 

If safe artificial methods could be de¬ 
vised to bring the fry past the critical 
period, their chances of survival would 
be vastly improved. It has been found 
that usually this period of wholesale deci¬ 
mation is reached about the time of the 
absorption of the yolk sac. 

Apparently at or before this stage mi¬ 
nute forms of plankton—the mass of 


passively floating or weakly swimming 
plant and animal life near the surface of 
the sea—are needed as food by the fry 
that can no longer draw on the yolk sac 
for nourishment, and without this plank¬ 
ton they die. 

The scarcity or abundance of plankton 
has been found to depend upon sunlight 
and temperature, and the examination of 
the scales of fish reveals that in any 
school of adults there is a great prepon¬ 
derance of some particular age. Figuring 
back, this class coincides with the year 
most favorable to the development of 
plankton. 

This affords a clue to the discovery of 
a method by which marine hatcheries may 
bring their salt-water fry past the dan¬ 
gerous age before releasing them—a thing 
that cannot now be done. 

This line of investigation shows how 
important the study of marine life is, 
what invaluable revelations it may yield, 
and the splendid character of the results 
that may be attained therefrom. 

The United States Bureau of Fisheries 
has recently published a paper on the 
Lobster which shows how an understand¬ 
ing of marine life leads to a solution of 
the problem of its conservation. 

SAVING THE LOBSTER FISHERY 

To meet the alarming decline of the 
Lobster fishery, the several States inter¬ 
ested in its protection have enacted vari¬ 
ous laws. Some have provisions for a 
closed season, in which the taking of this 
crustacean is forbidden. Laws prohibit¬ 
ing the destruction of female Lobsters 
“in berry”—that is, carrying their eggs 
after laying them—have also been en¬ 
acted. 

In addition to the protection thus 
offered, attempts have been made to prop¬ 
agate them artificially, by hatching and 
liberating the fry. 

Existing policies, however, have not 
checked the decline, and recent studies 
show that new forms of protection and 
propagation must be adopted if the fishery 
is to be saved. Dr. Herrick, America’s 
foremost student of the Lobster problem, 
proposes the abolition of the closed season, 
which he considers a futile practice. He 
would adopt a double gauge, under which 
traps would be prohibited that did not 
permit the escape of all Lobsters under 9 
inches, and make impossible the entrance 


26 


THE BOOK OF FTSHF.S 



Photograph from U. S. Bureau of Fisheries 


SAVING THE NEW ENGLAND LOBSTER FISHERY 

These men are lyinging egg-bearing lobsters to the hatchery at Boothbay Harbor, Maine. The 
Bureau of Fisheries, in cooperation with the State authorities, collects egg-bearing lobsters from the 
fishermen, takes the lobsters to the hatcheries, and saves all the eggs, which wouhl otherwise be lost. 


















FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


27 


of all over 11 inches. He also would forbid 
the capture or sale of all below or above 
that limit; would protect the “berried” 
Lobster and fix a bounty for each one 
delivered to the fishery authorities. He 
would have young Lobsters reared to the 
bottom-seeking stage in hatcheries, thus 
liberating them when the perils of infancy 
are past. 

FISHES OF GEOLOGIC HISTORY 

Jordan observes that when a fish dies 
it leaves no friends. Its body is promptly 
attacked by scores of scavengers, ranging 
from the one-celled Protozoa and bacteria 
to members of its own species. The flesh 
is soon devoured, the gelatinous substance 
of the bones decays and leaves the phos¬ 
phate of lime content to be absorbed by 
the water. Hence the multitudes die 
without leaving any trace behind. Once 
in a great while a few teeth, or a fin spine, 
or a bone buried in clay may endure, but 
the exceptions are notably rare. 

It is because of this condition that few 
traces of the earliest fishes of the geologic 
past have been left. An expedition from 
the Smithsonian Institution, some years 
ago, unearthed, near Canon City, Colo¬ 
rado, what are believed to be the oldest 
fish remains known to science. They 
come down from the Lower Silurian age, 
a time when neither man nor mammal, 
nor reptile, nor any other living land ani¬ 
mal with a backbone, had yet appeared— 
a time, indeed, when some of the deepest 
sandstones we know were being laid 
down. 

FORCES OF DISTRIBUTION STILL AT 
WORK 

From early geologic times many things 
have played important roles in determin¬ 
ing the distribution of the various species 
of fish. We see those same forces at 
work to-day. 

In New England waters only a beggarly 
34,000 pounds of Bluefish are taken 
annually, while from there to Delaware 
Bay the yearly catch amounts to more 
than 3,000,000 pounds. 

In the case of Cod, the situation is re¬ 
versed, there being some eighty times as 
many Cod taken north of Long Island as 
south of that latitude. 

There are practically no Croakers in 
New England, but a plentiful supply off 
the New Jersey shore. 


There are few Herring in waters be¬ 
tween Long Island Sound and Delaware 
Bay, while the Menhaden are most abun¬ 
dant there. Temperature is regarded as 
the principal influence in thus separating 
the fishes in these two parts of our North 
Atlantic waters. There are some species 
that seem to be equally at home above or 
below the latitude of Long Island, such 
as the Alewife, the Butter-fish, the Sum¬ 
mer Flounder, and the Scup. 

Boston is easily the fishing capital of 
the New World, and yields only to 
Grimsby, England, as the world’s leading 
fishing port (see illustration, page i6). 

In the North Atlantic fisheries, Canada 
has 43,000 men employed, as against 76,- 
000 for New England and the Middle 
Atlantic States. 

In the United States fisheries north of 
Delaware Bay, the Menhaden takes first 
rank in the weight of the catch, with 
256,000,000 pounds to its credit. 

MENHADEN LEAD IN WEIGHT OF 
CATCH 

There is a wide gap between it and the 
next group, which includes the Herring, 
Haddock, and Cod, with 98,000,000, 89,- 
000,000, and 86,000,000 pounds, respec¬ 
tively, as the weights of their annual 
catches. 

Then there is another wide gap, fol¬ 
lowed by another group, which includes 
the Pollock, with 25,000,000 pounds; the 
Flounder, with 22,000,000; the Hake, 
with 21,000,000; and the Whiting, with 
20,000,000 pounds. 

The Mackerel leads the fourth group 
with 17,000,000 pounds, the Weakfish and 
the Scup following second and third. 

The Alewives head the group of four 
next in importance, with 5,000,000 
pounds. The Butter-fish, the Croaker, 
and the Bluefish contribute 4,600,000 
pounds, 4,236,000 pounds, and 3,362,000 
pounds, respectively, to the total catch. 

The Cusk and the Bonito are the other 
species that show an annual catch of more 
than 2,000,000 pounds. . 

The Lobster fishery yields over 12,000,- 
000 pounds, nearly half of the product 
being taken from the Lobster pots of 
Maine. 

The abounding wealth of the United 
States and the high per capita income of 
the people have made them able to in¬ 
dulge their whims rather than their needs 



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FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


29 


for food. Therefore the food they select, 
both from land and sea, has been chosen 
more from the standpoint of flavor than 
from that of nourishing qualities. The 
choice cuts of beef and the choice varie¬ 
ties of fish are taken and the remainder 
all but discarded. 

They have been particularly slow to 
adopt new salt-water fishes into their diet. 
What was ignored yesterday comes into 
the market to-day, and to-morrow it ac¬ 
quires a vogue. 

It is not so long ago that the Pollock 
was in such small demand that it was 
scarcely worth the taking. So also with 
the Tuna. But to-day both find ready 
sale, the latter particularly in cans. 

The Flounder, likewise, used to be 
eaten only by the initiated few; but now 
it is one of the most ready sellers. So it 
has been with the Haddock and the minor 
Salmons. 

TRAINING THE NATIONAL TASTE 

Sea Mussels and Tilefish (see Color 
Plate, page .53) show how the public taste 
can be trained under proper guidance, 
and as the population of the country 
grows we shall follow Europe in the utili¬ 
zation of marine resources to supplement 
our land crops. To-day we eat only about 
a third as much fish per capita as the 
people of Europe, and have only scratched 
the surface in promoting the utilization 
of our food-fish resources. 

We have overfished a few of our 
species, but the great majority have 
barely been touched. Even those which 
constitute our principal fisheries are 
yielding, with a few exceptions, only a 
fraction of what they could offer, if 
marketing facilities were better. 

Three basic handicaps—perishability of 
the product, unevenness or uncertainty 
of supply, and unsteady consumer de¬ 
mand—have kept the fresh-fish industry 
from developing as it should. 

FRESH FISH TO EVERY MARKET 

Other products have one or two of 
these handicaps: milk is perishable, but 
considered imperative; canned goods have 
an uneven demand and supply, but only 
fish suffer from all three conditions. 

But lately ways are being discovered to 
overcome the perishability of fish. Meth¬ 
ods of precooling have been found by 
which the fish can be frozen as soon as 


taken, in low-temperature brine, insur¬ 
ing the thorough cooling of every shred 
before chemical change sets in. 

Then the fish is encased in an individ¬ 
ual film of ice and sent to market. The 
housewife who buys her fish in this ice 
jacket can then know it is perfectly fresh, 
having been kept so from the hour it was 
caught. 

A fresh fish bought in a market stall 
is seldom as fresh as a frozen fish pre¬ 
cooled when caught, and once this type 
of frozen fish becomes widely available, 
it is safe to predict that the zone in which 
marine fishes are eaten fresh will reach 
much farther back from the coast than it 
now does. 

Other methods of securing new pa¬ 
trons of the marine fisheries have been 
tried with success. Last winter two 
Boston wholesale fish dealers tried put¬ 
ting up choice cuts of Haddock in con¬ 
sumer packages wrapped in parchment 
paper. The experiment was so success¬ 
ful that these packages have found favor 
as far away as Denver. 

A Boston forwarder took a step in an¬ 
other direction in the extension of the 
fresh-fish market. He undertook to 
gather the less-than-carload lots of fish 
consigned to Philadelphia or other cities 
and to ship them through in carload lots 
with a large saving of transportation costs 
and increased expedition in handling. 

SHIPPING LIVE FISH TO MARKET 

A Canadian fisherman has tried ship¬ 
ping live Lake Trout to New York, with 
striking success. He sent in one ship¬ 
ment 6,000 pounds of Trout. They were 
put in four wooden tanks seven feet 
square and five feet deep, which were 
placed in an ordinary box car. By means 
of a kerosene-driven engine the water was 
kept constantly in circulation. Casual¬ 
ties in transportation were only about 15 
per cent, and it is possible that in the 
future the fastidious can enter their fa¬ 
vorite restaurants, peer into a pool, and 
select the fishes they want to eat—that is, 
if the demand is great enough to warrant 
the regular deliveries. 

That fish from the sea will help solve 
the food problem of America whenever 
it becomes acute is shown by the fact 
that analyses reveal how readily fish can 
be used as a substitute for meat. 

Fresh Salmon has more nutrients in it. 


30 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



HOW THE SPORTY SALMON COMES FRESH TO AMERICAN DINNER TABLES 

Each of the beautiful specimens from the fishing communities of our northern coasts and Canada 
rides into American markets in a special berth padded in “ frazil-ice ” and snow, and thereby is unharmed 
and delicious when it arrives. Fish packed by this method have been shipped 800 miles inland without 
showing signs of deterioration. 


for instance, than round steak; Shad, 
more than chicken. 

There are some six million farms in 
the United States, and as the demand for 
food grows more pressing, each will 
probably have its own fish pond. Assum¬ 
ing that each farm will utilize only three 
pounds of fish a week, a total of more 
than a billion pounds would be available, 
releasing a nearly equivalent amount of 
other meat for urban consumption. 

PUTTING SHAD IN THE PACIFIC 

The United States Bureau of Fisheries 
has foreseen the day when exact knowl¬ 
edge of the marine and fresh-water con¬ 
ditions that make for an abundant fish 
supply will be one of our major concerns. 

It recognizes that without exact and 
definite knowledge of all phases of ma¬ 
rine biology that aflfect the lives of the 
fishes suitable for human consumption, 
efforts to utilize the food resources of 
the sea to the fullest advantage must be 
handicapped so sorely that species which 
might render rich returns will be neg¬ 
lected, while others that have met with 


great favor may be all but exterminated. 

The Bureau’s work in introducing the 
Shad into Pacific waters and making it 
abundant through 2,000 miles of coast¬ 
line has been a service of the first order. 
Its success in saving the Atlantic Salmon 
and the Shad from extermination in such 
eastern rivers as have not reached the 
critical stage of pollution is another in¬ 
stance of its unusual value to the nation. 
Its rescue of the Seal fishery from de¬ 
struction and its protection of the Alas¬ 
kan Salmon fishery from inordinate de¬ 
pletion have earned for it a universal 
appreciation. 

Yet these activities are but a prelude to 
the things that remain to be done. 

Thanks to the splendid achievements 
of the past, in which such men as Goode, 
Jordan, Evermann, Nichols, Gudger, 
Bigelow, Barbour, Parker, Eigermann, 
Townsend, and numerous others have 
rendered an inestimable service to hu¬ 
manity by their gradual pushing back of 
the horizon of marine life, ichthyology 
to-day stands at a point where a correct 




FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


31 



LANDING TUNA AT HUBBARDS COVE, NOVA SCOTIA 
The Tuna is an inhabitant of many seas. In North Atlantic waters it is known as the Horse Mackerel,, 
in the North Sea as the Tunny, in the Mediterranean sometimes as the Great Albacore, and in California 
and southern Florida as the Tuna. 


appraisal has been made possible of the 
problems remaining to be solved in order 
to develop for an ever-expanding race all 
the potential treasures of the sea. 

It is an interesting coincidence that 
most of the game fishes of salt-water 
habitat belong to those species that are 
favorites as food fishes. The lure of the 
Trout stream and Bass-abounding waters, 
and the fascination of pursuing the Pick¬ 
erel and the Muskellunge, the Pike and 
the Grayling, have brought thrills to 
millions who have cast a line in fresh 
water. 

SALT WATER GAME FISHES 

But the man who originated salt-water 
fishing with rod;:anci reel, where the sport 
really begins when the game is hooked, 
where hours of battle are often required 
to bring the valiant fighter to gaff—hours 
in which the crown of victory trembles in 
the balance between fish and fisherman— 
that man created a sport which is the last 
word as a contest of human skill and pis¬ 
catorial gameness. 


Angling with rod and reel for salt-water 
fishes is of comparatively recent origin, 
but when done “according to Hoyle” it 
makes the battle between fish and man a 
fight that gives the fish an even chance, and 
can be won by the fisherman only through 
the exercise of his last reserve of skill. 

The Tuna, the Black Sea Bass, the 
Weakfish, the Striped Bass, the Bluefish, 
the Tautog, and the Sheepshead all offer 
sport with as many thrills as Tarpon fish¬ 
ing affords, when each is caught with the 
tackle prescribed by sportsmen’s associa¬ 
tions for battle with the respective species. 

“the lion, tiger, and elephant 
trinity” 

One authority has called the Tarpon,, 
Tuna, and Black Sea Bass the lion, tiger, 
and elephant trinity of the angling world. 
Yet the game is bringing them to gaff with 
seven-foot rods, weighing not more than 
25 ounces, although there may be from 
100 to even 400 pounds of game and fight¬ 
ing fish at the other end of the line! 









32 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by H. Armstrong Roberts 

TWO SALT-WATER GAME FISHERMEN WITH THEIR PRIZES OF A DAY 

These two Channel Bass, one weighing 47 pounds and the other 23, show the possibilities of sport 
with rod and reel in sea fishing. He who gets a game hsh weighing from 40 to 200 pounds on a hook becomes 
a party to a battle royal in which man and fish may struggle tor hours, with victory trembling in the balance 
all the while and the issue undecided until the very last moment. 




FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 33 


It is a battle royal 
when one of these re¬ 
sourceful andunrelent- 
ing denizens of the deep 
is well hooked by a suc¬ 
cessful strike, and reel 
wars against fin—a 
battle that the novice 
is almost certain to 
lose, and that even the 
veteran of many vic¬ 
tories cannot count as 
w'on until the gaff has 
done its work. 

The Tuna is an in¬ 
habitant of many seas. 

In North Atlantic 
waters it is known as 
the Horse Mackerel, in 
the North Sea as the 
Tunny, in the Medi¬ 
terranean sometimes 
as the Great Albacore, 
and in California and 
southern Florida wa¬ 
ters as the Tuna. 

In the vicinity of 
Santa Catalina, Cali¬ 
fornia, Tuna angling 
has reached its high- 
water mark as a sport. 

The angling ground is 
a narrow, four-mile 
stretch of coast in the 
lee of the island moun¬ 
tains, where there are 
several small open 
bays, generally smooth, 
with wind blowing 
only a part of the day. 

The vicinity of Miami 
Beach, Florida, is also 
a favorite hunting 
ground. 

Such a fine fighter needs special tackle, 
if it is to be taken in true sportsman’s 
style, and if that tackle isn’t the best that 
ingenuity can devise and money can buy, 
it is safe to wager long odds that the prize 
will not be landed. 

SPECIAL BOATS FOR TUNA 

Special boats are required for Tuna 
fishing as a sport. They are broad- 
beamed launches, built for two fishermen 
and the boatman, who serves as engineer, 
helmsman, and gaffer. Usually each boat 


Photograph by Gilbert Grosvenor 

LANDING GIANT TUNA FISH, CAPE BRETON ISLAND 
The North Atlantic Tuna is the giant of his tribe, specimens weighing 
as much as 1,500 pounds having been captured. European varieties do not 
attain more than 500 pounds, and on the California coast they are still 
smaller. In the Old World the Tuna has been prized as food since the time 
of the ancient Romans, but it was long in gaining popularity in this country. 


is equipped with a three- or five-horse- 
power gasoline engine. 

Once a successful strike has been made, 
the game is to bring the quarry to the 
boatside with rod and reel. A little too 
rigid holding of the rod, a momentary 
failure to keep the line taut, a little lapse 
of skill in the manipulation of the reel— 
in short, any one of a dozen kinds of mis¬ 
haps and the battle is lost or begun again. 
Leaping into the air, running hither 
and yon, diving, darting, and fighting 
every inch of the way, the great fish 
gives battle. Often it lasts for hours; 



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34 








FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


35 


sometimes the fight ranges over a ten- 
mile sector. 

There are 300 feet of No. 24 Cutty- 
hunk line to be fought over by man and 
fish. Now reeling it in to bring the fight¬ 
ing quarry toward the gaff, now playing 
it out to prevent a jerk that might part 
it, the battle rages until triumph comes 
to the sportsman or victory to the fish. 

In California Flying Fish is the bait on 
which the Tuna strikes best. The latter 
come in large schools between the middle of 
May and the last of June, and atonce divide 
into companies of from fifty to a hundred. 

For awhile they play around on the sur¬ 
face; then suddenly there is a great splash 
and the fretted waters turn into a boiling 
spray; the Tunas have sighted a school of 
Flying Fish, which skim along in frenzy 
and wild confusion from their natural ene¬ 
mies. That is thesignal forwhich thefisher- 
men have been waiting, and the sport is on. 

The Tarpon is not classed as a food fish, 
but it is to Atlantic waters all that theTuna 
is to Pacific, the acme in sea sport fishing. 

The credit for originating the sport of 
Tarpon fishing belongs to William S. Jones, 
of Philadelphia. Back in the late eighties 
he was fishing in the Indian River Inlet, in 
Florida, and chanced to hook a 130-pound 
Tarpon which was six feet long. For two 
hours he battled with his quarry and 
finally brought it to gaff. 

Wherever fishermen forgathered in that 
day, the story of Jones’ triumph was told, 
and soon Indian River Inlet became the 
mecca of the Nation’s rod and reel cham¬ 
pions. To-day Tarpon fishing is an estab¬ 
lished sport at many resorts in southern 
Florida, both on the Gulf side and in the 
Atlantic, and clubs strictly regulate the 
character of tackle to be used to a point 
where only skill can win. 

The vast schools of Mullet upon which 
the Tarpon preys form the magnet that 
draws him to the various feeding grounds 
in Gulf and Florida waters. 

Ordinarily one does not think of the 
Weakfish, or Squeteague, as offering much 
in the wayofsport, but when angledforwith 
appropriate tackle, it can give the fisherman 
thrills that leave nothing to be desired. 

Its abundance and willingness to bite 
make it popular with anglers who want 
action. It is a handsome member of the 
finny tribe. The Cape Cod fishermen call 
it the “drummer” because of the peculiar 
noise it makes when traveling in schools. 
It gets its name “Weakfish” not because 


of its lack either of gameness or stamina, 
but because the bony processes of its 
mouth are soft and tender. 

There is never a doubt when a Weak¬ 
fish bites. It simply swoops down on the 
bait and is off with it like a flash. Its 
soft mouth-parts call for skill in bringing 
it in. A sudden jerk will tear out the 
hook, hence the line must always be taut, 
and the fish must be led in rather than 
dragged. Rods weighing from ten to 
fifteen ounces, made of greenheart or 
bamboo, are prescribed for Weakfish 
angling, and a fine linen line 300 feet 
long, with a multiplying reel, is employed. 

THE STRIPED BASS AS A FIGHTER 

All anglers agree that the fisherman 
who hooks a Striped Bass with proper 
tackle has a run for his money. Once 
hooked, this flashing fighter does not spend 
its time leaping out of the water, trying to 
shake the line loose, as does the Salmon. 

Rather it makes a first fierce plunge 
and brings every ounce of its muscular 
fiber to bear against the line. If this is 
strong enough to hold it in leash, it seeks 
to free itself by finesse and strategy. Now 
it tries to chafe the line over the sharp 
edge of the rocks to which it runs; fail¬ 
ing in that, the fighter will attempt to foul 
the line in seaweed and kelp. 

But if it be of good size and the rod of 
about 18-ounce weight, with a 12- or 18- 
thread Cuttyhunk line and a quadruple 
multiplier reel, it will give the disciple of 
the Izaak Walton League who hooks it a 
lively and artistic tussle before throwing 
up the sponge. 

Loving brackish water, the Striped 
Bass brings the sport of philosophers a 
considerable distance inland. Roanoke 
and Potomac rivers, the Raritan and the 
Passaic, and numerous others afford ex¬ 
cellent fishing grounds for Striped Bass. 

It is a temperamental fish, shy to a 
degree at times, now taking one bait and 
now responding to another. Small Eels, 
Shrimps, Crabs, and blood worms are to 
its particular liking. 

THE GAME AND GAUDY BLUEFISH 

Usually we think of the Bluefish as one of 
the dependables of the bill of fare; but it has 
some exciting moments to offer the angler 
who prefers the rod and reel of the sports¬ 
man to the hand line of the pot fisherman. 

With a spanking breeze and a moder¬ 
ate sea, the man who hooks a Bluefish 


36 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



rnotograph by l^.dith b. W atson 

FISHWIVES BEHEADING CAPELIN: ISLAND OF ST. PIERRE 

The Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, ceded by Great Britain to France as shelters for her fishermen 
by the Ireaty of Pans, 1763, are now only relics of the once great French empire in America. Both were 
formerly very valuab e as stations from which France carried on her fisheries on the Banks of Newfoundland 
bt. I lerre is the smaller, but the more important of the two, and the little town of the same name presents 
a busy aspect during the fishing season. The American Capelin was so called because early French fishermen 
saw a resemblance to the European Capelan^ a small Cod, but the American fish is classed as a Smelt. 


earns his dinner. It makes a smashing 
fight, and the fisherman who lacks the 
skill of giving proper tautness to his line 
is likely to find it broken by a sudden 
rush or shaken loose if allowed to slack. 

Though the leader may be of wire, the 
fish will attempt to swim ahead and bite 
the line in two with its sharp teeth. 

One angler has also described the hooked 
Bluefish as a wild tiger, with all its 
strength and courage and deviltry—now 
running deep, now rushing from side to 
side, but always pullingandjerking with its 
entire strength in its mad battle for free¬ 
dom—a foeman worthy of anyone’s steel. 


Lobster tail, shedder Crabs, live Killies 
or small Herrings are tempting tidbits to 
the voracious Bluefish, which has been 
called the glutton of the deep. 

It is related that Bluefishes are utterly 
wanton in their gluttony and will prey on 
a school of lesser fish until their stomachs 
are so full that they disgorge the harvest 
and begin all over again. 

The Bluefish, like the Striped Bass, 
brings the joy of salt-water game fishing 
into many of the Atlantic coast rivers, 
notably the Hudson, the lower Potomac^ 
and Hampton Roads. 


FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


37 



this 

Day 


Wide World Photograph 


LARGEST STURGEON CAUGHT IN NORTH SEA 


A giant Royal Sturgeon which when landed in the North Sea tipped the scale a little short of looo 
pounds, nearly a half ton. A portion of the huge fish was sent to King George for his Christmas dinner. 


SEA BASS SLUGGISH ON LINE 

Some of the deep-water food fishes 
offer good sport for the fishermen who 
go down to the sea in boats to cast their 
lines. One of these is the Sea Bass, a 
rather sluggish citizen of the sea, but 
withal a ready biter and interesting game 
for those people who like to go out on an 
excursion steamer that drops anchor on 
the banks off Sandy Hook, for instance. 

Sometimes the Sea Bass breaks water 
like its river cousin, and makes vicious 
leaps and contortions in its efforts to 
free itself; but its jaws are leathery and 
once well hooked it seldom gets away. 
An eight-ounce rod is the rule for sports¬ 
men angling for the Sea Bass. 

All hands pay tribute to the Kingfish 
as perhaps the gamest for its size of all 
the bottom-feeding denizens of salt water. 
Famous alike for its qualities, its splen¬ 
did color, its graceful form, and its fine 
flavor, it was christened the Kingfish by 
the ^o^2S vivants of Colonial days, when 
New York was yet New Amsterdam. It 
takes bait readily. Clams, bits of fish, shed- 
der Crabs, sandworms, and Shrimps being 
to its liking. Its tactics when hooked are 
largely those of the Small-mouthed Bass. 


In surf fishing the best time to catch the 
Kingfish is the first of the flood tide. 

The treasures of the sea are many, but 
none is more certain to yield delight to the 
true sportsman than the game fishes that 
disport in its waters. The commercial 
fisherman, with his seines and hand lines, 
is perennially harvesting boatloads of sea 
fish for a large consuming public; but the 
real joy of the ocean is reserved for those 
with rods and lines properly designed to 
put the fisherman and his prize on even 
terms, where human skill and piscatorial 
generalship can each have its innings and 
the issue remains in doubt to the climax. 

POLLOCK (Pollachius virens) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ P^ge jp) 

The Pollock, also known as the Green Cod, 
or Coalfish, has a range that reaches across the 
Atlantic and as far south as Cape Henry, although 
it is not taken in commercial quantities south of 
New Jersey. In size it attains a weight of 35 
pounds and a length of 4 feet. It is a voracious 
eater and very destructive of young Cod. A ready 
biter, many sportsmen regard it as a fine game fish 
for rod and reel. 

Though a bottom-feeder, the Pollock frequents 
the surface and intermediate depths. It congre¬ 
gates in large schools, roams from place to place, 
and preys on all kinds of young fish. Professor 
Sars tells of witnessing an attack by a Pollock 
school on a school of small Cod. The latter were 
completely surrounded and driven into a compact 


38 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 


mass. On the edge of the mass the Pollocks bored 
in, eating their voracious way, while from above 
the screeching sea gulls plunged down to share the 
feast. In dire panic the young Cods darted this 
way and that and broke through the line as best 
they could. 

The Pollock appear about Cape Cod early in 
May, passing Race Point so close inshore that 
they are often caught with seines on the “tide 
rips.” A favorite spawning ground is off Cape 
Ann, where they stay from early May to late 
January, and by October get so numerous at times 
that they annoy the Cod fishermen by taking the 
bait before it has time to sink to Cod depth. 

The liver of the Pollock is particularly rich in 
oil, the medicinal quality of which is not inferior 
to cod-liver oil. The Pollock, like the Haddock, is 
rarely salted. 

CODFISH (Gadus callarias) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ 39) 

The Codfish belongs to a family which com¬ 
prises many species, including some of our most 
valuable marine fishes. The principal species are 
the Cod, Haddock, Pollock, Hake, and Cusk. 

Until recent years the annual value of the Cod 
has exceeded that of its close relatives, but during 
the past decade the Haddock fisheries have on 
several occasions assumed the first rank. The 
Cod owes its value as a food fish to its flavor, 
size, comparatively few bones, year-round abun¬ 
dance, and adaptability to dry-salting. Fishes rich 
in oil cannot be successfully dry-salted, and for 
this reason such species as the Salmon, Bluefish, 
and Mackerel, if salted at all, must be put into brine. 

The Cod is a cold-water fish and its movements 
are largely governed by changes in the water 
temperature. However, the temperature in many 
parts of the North Atlantic is so low throughout 
the year that the Codfish may be caught in equal 
abundance the year round. It is generally taken 
at depths of from 8 to 40 fathoms, but is known 
to inhabit much deeper water. It is found on our 
Atlantic coast from Cape Hatteras northward and 
is also an important species on the European coast. 
It is taken in commercial quantities in all our 
Atlantic States from New Jersey northward. Along 
the New Jersey coast it is found from late November 
until early May, but off the New England coast and 
the offshore “banks” it is caught throughout the year. 

The Cod is taken with otter trawls, trawl lines, 
hand lines, and gill nets. The larger vessels 
employ the otter trawls and are known as “trawlers.” 
Hand lines and trawl lines are the most popular 
methods of fishing, as their use requires only a 
small boat and crew. The boats range in size 
from the small motor and sail type to the large 
steam trawlers. Nearly all boats now carry engines, 
and thus are better equipped to encounter the 
frequent fogs and the violent storms which appear 
almost without warning, and which were the bane 
of fishermen of former days. 

The Cod is an omnivorous feeder, eating almost 
anything it happens upon. Its chief food appears 
to be Mollusks, crustaceans, worms, and fish, but 
articles such as jewelry, glass, stones, leather, etc., 
have been found in its stomach. Its omnivorous 
habit is responsible for the finding in its stomach 
of rare fishes and shells that otherwise might not 
have been known to exist. 

Spawning takes place along the New England 
coast from October to June. The eggs are about 


one-nineteenth of an inch in diameter and since 
t.hey float at the surface, many are cast ashore, 
eaten by birds, or otherwise destroyed. To offset 
this great destruction. Nature has rendered the 
Cod very prolific and a good-sized fish may contain 
several million eggs. 

The largest Cod recorded was more than 6 feet 
long and weighed 21 pounds, but fish weighing 
more than 75 pounds are comparatively rare. 
The usual size of those taken on the banks ranges 
between 10 and 35 pounds. The Cod is not a 
game fish, but when hooked by an angler is a 
welcome addition to his catch. 

It is said that the Cod fisheries constituted one 
of the inducements that led England to establish 
colonies in America. Their early importance was 
so great that the Cod won a place on the seal of 
the Colony of Massachusetts, and in the Massa¬ 
chusetts State House it is honored with an image. 
The Cod has been portrayed on Nova Scotian bank 
notes with the legend “Success to the Fisheries,” 
and on the early postage stamps of Newfoundland, 
where the courts have held that whenever the word 
“fish” is unqualified it must be taken to mean Codfish. 

HADDOCK (Melanogrammus aeglifinus) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ page jg) 

The Haddock is close to the Cod both in appear¬ 
ance and in its quality as food. It may be known 
at sight by the characteristic black lateral line 
that reaches from gill to tail. The “Finnan Haddie” 
of commerce, which is said to take its name from 
Findon or Findhorn, both towns in Scotland, is 
smoked Haddock. Unlike the Cod, the Haddock is 
seldom salted. 

On the American coast the Haddock rarely 
is encountered north of the Straits of Belle Isle or 
south of Hatteras. On European shores its habitat 
extends from Icelandic waters to those of France 
and entirely surrounds the British Isles. 

More gregarious than the Cod, the Haddock 
swims in large, compact schools in its migrations 
from place to place. It is a bottom-feeder and 
has marine invertebrates for its principal diet, 
Mollusks seeming to be favored above everything 
else. The spawning season of the Haddock is from 
April to June. The average size of those caught 
is from 2 to 4 pounds, with 17 pounds as about the 
maximum. 

In recent years the catch of Haddock has been 
so large as to make it a rival of the Cod, which it 
has occasionally outranked in the annual value of 
the catch. 

WINTER FLOUNDER (Pseudopleuronectes 
americanus), and SUMMER FLOUNDER 
(Paralichthys dentatus) 

{For illustrations see Color Plate^ page 40) 

The Flounder family includes the Halibuts, the 
Flounders, and the Turbots. The Winter Flounder 
{Pseudopleuronectes americanus) belongs to the 
Flounder tribe and is an important food fish on 
the New England coast. Next to the Halibut, it 
is the most widely caught Flatfish in Atlantic 
waters, and^ranges from Labrador to Hatteras, 
being especially abundant on the Massachusetts 
and Connecticut shores. It is not a large species, 
seldom attaining to more than 20 inches in length 
and 5 pounds in weight. A large female produces 
as many as a million eggs, the spawning season 
being from February to April. This species feeds 
on shellfish, young Crabs, and similar foods. It is 



39 


Painted by Hashime Murayama 

^Ol^hOQK. {^Pollachius •■virens) [at top] ; COY)¥\S}:i {Gadus callarias) [center]; ^rlADDOCK. (^Melanogrammus aeglifinus) 

Ranging across the Atlantic and as far south as Cape Henry, the Pollock, also known as Green Cod, or Coalfish, attains a weight of 35 pounds 
and a length of four feet. The liver yields an oil not inferior medicinally to that of the Cod. The temperature of many parts of the North Atlantic is so 
low that Codfish may be caught the year round. The catch of Haddock in recent years has made it a rival of the Cod, which it now occasionally outranks. 












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SQUIRREL HAKE {Urophycis chuss) [at top]; Q\}%YL{Brosmius brosme) [center]; WHITING {Merluccius bilinearis) 

The Squirrel Hake, belonging to the Codfish family, ranges from Labrador to Hatteras on the Atlantic coast. It is used in making boneless Cod, and its 
air bladder is used in the manufacture of isinglass and glue.‘ The Cusk, also a member of the Codfish family, is widely caught in the present New England 
fisheries. The Whiting, sometimes known as the Silver Hake, commonly inhabits the middle depths of the continental slope. 



















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Painted by Hashime Murayama 

TUNA {Thunnus thynnus) 

The Tuna belongs to the Mackerel family, of which it is the largest representative, and has a wider distribution than most fishes. It is found in all warm 
seas, and occurs as far north as Newfoundland. On the North Atlantic coast it is caught from early summer to October. During one season a single fisher¬ 
man harpooned thirty Tuna of an average weight of 1,000 pounds, although some weighing up to 1,500 pounds have been taken. 














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---- Fainted by Hashime Murayama 

ALEWIFE {Pomolobus pseudoharengus) [at top]; HERRING {Clupea harengus) 

The Alewife variously known as the Branch Herring, the Blear-eyed Herring, the Wall-eyed Herring, and the Gaspereau, is found on our Atlantic coast 
from the Carolinas northward. The Herring family includes the Sardines, Alewives, Shad, and Menhaden. ^ Clupea harengus is probably the most important 
food fish in the world, and is distributed throughout the North Atlantic Ocean. Unlike most fishes, the Herring is particularly fine-flavored at spawning time. 









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54 















FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


55 


a favorite with many anglers, being one of the few 
shore fish that can be caught during late winter. 
In the vicinity of New York hundreds of anglers 
may be seen fishing for Flounders on favorable days 
during March and April. 

The Summer Flounder {Paralichthys dentatus) or 
Plaice, also highly regarded as a food fish, is in 
some quarters known as the Fluke. It is dis¬ 
tinguished from the Winter Flounder by having a 
large mouth, whereas the other has a very small 
one. It averages in size from two to eight pounds 
and compares with the Turbot and the Brill of 
the English coast. The largest one recorded 
weighed 19F2 pounds. 

The Summer Flounders, like the Winter species, 
habitually live on the bottom, where their shape 
and color camouflage them and give them oppor¬ 
tunity to catch their prey. They are found mostly 
in bays, on sandy, muddy, or rocky bottoms. 
Feeding on small fishes. Crabs, Shrimps, and 
Squids, they frequently come to the surface in 
pursuit of their prey. 

The migration of the eye in Flounders is one 
of the strange provisions of Nature for the pro¬ 
tection of the Flatfish tribe. In early youth the 
Flounders swim about normally, with their eyes 
symmetrically placed; but as the fishes develop 
they lie flat in the sand, some species on one side 
and some on the other, and the right eye migrates 
over to the left side, or vice versa, so that they 
ultimately have both eyes on one side of their heads. 

HALIBUT (Hippoglossus hippoglossus) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page 41) 

The Halibut is the largest fish of the Flounder 
family and one of the most widespread in its range. 
It claims all seas for its habitat, in regions north 
of Havre, New York, and San Francisco. 

A strange fact concerning this and other cold- 
water species is that they have eyes and color on 
the right side, while species inhabiting warm water 
have eyes and color on the left side. 

The Halibut usually frequents offshore banks 
and exists in great numbers in many localities, but 
is sought after with such eagerness that it is gradually 
decreasing in numbers. It grows to a large size 
and fish weighing 200 or 300 pounds are often 
taken. The record weight was established when in 
June, 1917, the Eva Avina, fishing 50 miles off 
Thatcher Island, Massachusetts, caught a Halibut 
9 feet 2 inches long and 4 feet 2 inches broad, 
weighing 625 pounds dressed. 

The seaward movement of the Halibut has been 
noted by American fishermen. When the taking 
of Halibut first began, it was most abundant on 
Georges Banks. Later it gradually disappeared 
from those banks and went farther out to sea. It 
is now found mostly in the deep gullies between 
the offshore banks and on the outer edges of those 
banks, in water 100 to 350 fathoms deep. 

A voracious eater, the Halibut feeds upon the 
Skate, Cod, Haddock, Menhaden, Mackerel, Her¬ 
ring, Lobster, Cusk, etc. Crabs and Mollusks are 
also to its liking. Instances are recorded where 
it has attacked Codfish and stunned them by the 
flip of its tail. One was so busy putting a big 
Cod hors de combat that it allowed a dory to steal 
up and capture it before it had become aware of 
its peril. 


The female Halibut becomes heavy with roe in 
July and August, and instances have occurred 
where such a large quantity was taken from one 
of them that a good-sized man could scarcely 
carry it. 

COMMON STURGEON (Acipenser sturio) 
{For illustration see Color Plate, page 42) 

The Common Sturgeon has a maximum length 
of about 10 feet and sometimes reaches a weight of 
500 pounds. Its range is from the Carolinas to 
Maine, but the region of its greatest abundance is 
the Delaware River. It is a migratory fish, spends 
most of its time near the shore, and then runs to 
brackish or fresh water to spawn. 

Considerable change in the Sturgeon’s appear¬ 
ance takes place as it grows older. The young 
have more slender and protuberant snouts than 
their elders. The sexes also differ, in that the male 
has an oblong head, with a wide, blunt snout, 
while the female’s head is triangular, rapidly nar¬ 
rowing from the back to the snout. 

A bottom-feeder, the presence of Mussel and 
other shell fragments in its stomach, as well as of 
mud containing the remains of small crustaceans, 
tells of its habit of scooping its dinner from the 
floor of the sea. The barbels and lips are sensitive 
in the detection of food, but the snout is used to 
root up the soft bottom of shoal places in search of 
something to eat. 

Goode assures us that this fish is prone to jump 
out of the water at an angle and may project its 
body for some distance. It is so active that it 
sometimes leaps into small boats. One is reported 
to have leaped high enough above the water to 
jump through one of the “dead-lights,” near the 
water’s edge, of the hull of a passing side-wheel 
steamer, and thus to have made itself prisoner. 

The spawning season is somewhat regulated by 
the temperature of the water on the spawning 
grounds. May is the usual month in the Delaware, 
and the latter half predominantly so. The spawn¬ 
ing fishes, known as “runners,” are usually most 
abundant after the middle of the schooling period. 
They seek a hard bottom in which to deposit their 
eggs. The spent females are of little value for the 
time being, but later they become sleek and fat, 
and as “cowfishes” their flesh is in prime con¬ 
dition. 

The eggs of the Sturgeon are used in making 
caviar. They are not taken when the female is 
ready to spawn, but at an earlier period, when the 
roe is still “hard.” The quantity taken varies, of 
course, with the size and quality of the female, 
ranging from 5 to 15 gallons in bulk and from 
800,000 to 2,400,000 in number. 

In the making of caviar the eggs are removed 
from the fish and gently rubbed over a fine screen, 
by which they are separated from their enveloping 
membrane. Under the screen the released eggs fall 
into a trough, through which they pass into tubs. 
In these tubs salt is carefully stirred with the eggs, 
and it draws their watery constituents from them 
and forms a copious brine. Later the eggs are 
poured into fine-meshed sieves, where they are 
allowed to drain until dry. They are then put into 
casks or cans and are ready to go into commerce. 

Overfishing has done vast harm to the Sturgeon 
supply. In the early decades of American history 


56 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



everyday foreightweeks,the 
best their combined efforts 
could produce was 68 casks. 
To-day Sturgeons are rare 
prizes, worth several hun¬ 
dred dollars each. 


SQUIRREL HAKE 
(Urophycis chuss) 


{For illustration see Color 
Plate, page 43) 


International Newsreel 

“HAM AND EGGS” FROM CHESAPEAKE BAY 
For years Chesapeake Bay fishermen have fished the Menhaden com¬ 
mercially for its oil and for the production of fertilizer. The oil is pressed 
out of the cooked fish and sold for use in making soap, paints and a few 
other commodities and the remaining solid matter is sold for fertilizing 
material. In recent years, however, it has been found that the dried fish 
flakes, which were going into the ground, will make hens lay more eggs and 
will induce hogs to put on fat in record-breaking time. Specially con¬ 
structed ships make big hauls of thousands of these Menhaden. 


The Squirrel Hake and 
its close relative, the White 
Hake, Urophycis tenuis, be¬ 
long to the Codfish family 
and are found on the 
Atlantic coast from Lab¬ 
rador to Hatteras. They 
are both ground fishes, stay¬ 
ing close to the bottom. 
They are said to bite best 
on moonlight nights. The 
Hake fisheries rank about 
sixth in the number of tons 
taken in New England 
waters annually. They are 
used extensively in making 
boneless Cod and for corn¬ 
ing. Their air bladders 
find wide use in the manu¬ 
facture of isinglass and glue. 

The Squirrel and White 
Hakes resemble each other 
so closely that even to the 
trained eye of the zoologist 
the difference is not marked. 
The most tangible distinc¬ 
tion is in the number and size 
of the scales. These are 
smaller, and therefore more 
numerous, in the White 
Hake. In the latter there 
are about 135 or 140 oblique 
rows of scales from the bran¬ 
chial opening to the caudal 
fin, as compared with about 
100 in the Squirrel Hake. 

These Hakes are not to 
be confused with another 
group of fishes sometimes 
called Hakes, but more 
commonly known as the 
Whitings. The represen¬ 
tative species of the latter 


it was not much in favor, though New Yorkers ate 
some of it as “Albany beef”; but in later decades 
it became a popular market fish, and along Dela¬ 
ware Bay were hundreds of fishermen who earned 
their living catching Sturgeon and making caviar. 
Women and children spent their long winter eve¬ 
nings making Sturgeon nets. In all the bay-side 
towns there were Sturgeon boats awaiting the com¬ 
ing of the fish. 

In those days the Sturgeons were plentiful, and 
caviar sold for from $9 to $12 a cask, which con¬ 
tained 135 pounds, and the output ran up into the 
thousands of casks. But overfishing and heedless¬ 
ness of consequences sealed the doom of the fishery. 
Caviar went up to $120 a cask, even as far back as 
1902, and although hundreds of fishermen fished 


group is Merluccius bili- 
nearis, sometimes called the Silver Hake. 

CUSK (Brosmius brosme) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page 43) 

The Cusk is a member of the Codfish family, 
inhabiting rocky ledges in deep water in the North 
Atlantic above Cape Cod. It reaches the coast 
of Greenland and swings around the North Atlantic 
basin to Iceland, Norway, and Denmark. 

This fish disappears from a given haunt after 
prolonged fishing and moves on to some other ledge. 
After a lapse of years it may return to the deserted 
ledge again. 

The food of the Cusk consists of Mollusks and 
small crustaceans. It is an excellent food fish and is 
widely caught in the present New England fisheries. 


FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


57 



Photograph from Ewing Galloway 

A FOUR-TON STACK OF FISH IN NOVA SCOTIA 


In the northern regions of the earth where man must necessarily be frugal, no portion of fishes rich in 
oil, such, for instance, as the Cod, is ever wasted. Norwegians mix Cod-heads in the food of their cows for 
the purpose of making them give richer milk. Icelanders give the bones of the Cod to their cattle, and the 
inhabitants of the Peninsula of Kamchatka give them to their dogs. 


WHITING (Merluccius bilinearis) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page pj) 

Sometimes known as the Silver Hake, this species 
is now coming to preempt the common name 
Whiting—a term which in former days was applied 
in divers localities to various species of fishes 
belonging to as many different families. 

It commonly inhabits the middle depths of the 
ocean or the outer edge of the continental slope, 
but finds its feeding ground at or near the surface, 
where it preys upon schools of Herring and other 
small fish. Usually, when attacking its victims, it 
congregates in schools of considerable numbers. 
Its teeth are sharp, and it possesses a large and 
powerful mouth and a form muscular and lithe, 
which adapts it to rapid locomotion; for it, like 
the Pollock, is essentially a fish of prey. Its average 
length is about a foot. 


Prior to 1880 the breeding habits of the Whiting 
were a mystery. An exploration of the sea bottom 
off Newport, at a depth of from 150 to 300 fathoms, 
revealed immense numbers of young fish from one- 
half an inch to three inches long, and with them 
were many adults from one foot to one and a half 
feet long, apparently in the midst of the spawning 
season. 

The New England Whiting is closely related to 
the European Hake, Merluccius merluccius, and 
to the California Hake, Merluccius productus. It 
appears that the spawning time of the European 
Hake is from January to April. During this period 
both species seem to lose the great voracity which 
characterizes them at other times, and are mostly 
taken at that season in trawls rather than with 
lines. 




58 


FISHERMEN UNLOADING THEIR HERRING AT A LOCKEPORT CANNERY: NOVA SCOTIA 

The Herring family is large and prosperous. It includes such diverse members as the Shad, the Pilchard, the Anchovy, the Sprat, and the Whitebait. 
All branches of the family have small mouths and either have no teeth at all or very small ones. They are therefore, for the most part, obliged to find sustenance in 
the myriad of minute animals diffused through the waters of the ocean or lurking among the weeds at the bottom. 







FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


59 


MACKEREL (Scomber scombrus) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page 4^ 

1 he Mackerel is a member of the Mackerel 
family, which includes the Tuna, the Bonito, the 
Kingfish, and the Wahoo, or Peto. It ranges as 
far south as Hatteras and as far north as the 
Straits of Belle Isle, and, being a shore-loving fish, 
does not wander far to sea. It first appears on the 
Hatteras coast in the early spring, and gradually 
migrates north, its migration seeming to be regu¬ 
lated by the fluctuation of water temperature. 
Schools 20 miles long and half a mile wide have 
been sighted. In the seventies an international 
dispute arose regarding the migration of these 
fishes. Our Government took the position that the 
Mackerel do not come from deep water offshore to 
warmer water inshore, but that they are first found 
in the spring off Cape Henry and can be followed 
day by day as they move, in countless hordes, 
northward to Maine and Nova Scotia. Canada 
held that they came inshore from deep water off¬ 
shore. The American viewpoint has been proven 
correct. 

The spawning season for the Mackerel extends 
from May to July. The spawning grounds are in 
rather deep water off the coast, stretching between 
Long Island Sound and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
Prior to spawning the fish are lean and their flesh 
is of poor texture, but after that task is over they 
get fine and fat, being regarded as among the best 
fishes in Atlantic waters. 

The food of the Mackerel consists of small 
crustaceans. Lobster spawn, and the “small fry 
of the seas.” One tiny crustacean favorite is the 
red, spiderlike creature known as “the Boone 
Island bedbug,” and old fishermen declare that 
wherever it is found they can afford to wait, for it is 
bound to bring the Mackerel to its feeding ground. 

Many enemies prey on the Mackerel. The gan- 
nets often eat so many that they are unable to 
rise from the sea to avoid a passing ship until 
they have disgorged several good-sized fish. Por¬ 
poises, whales. Sharks, and Dogfish also are dan¬ 
gerous enemies. Indeed, the last named are some¬ 
times so hungry that they will bite the twine of 
the fishermen’s nets to get inside and prey upon 
the catch at will. They have also been known to 
follow the catch to the very sides of the ships and 
swim around the scuppers and drink the blood 
flowing from the dressing operations aboard the boat. 

The Squids also are enemies. They suddenly 
dart back among the Mackerel with arrowlike 
speed, and, quickly turning to one side, seize a 
victim, sink their sharp beaks into the nape of the 
neck, and kill it almost instantly by severing the 
spinal cord. Sometimes they fail. When they do, 
they drop to the bottom and change their color 
from translucent paleness to that of sand, in order 
to camouflage their presence while waiting for the 
Mackerel to return. The latter usually stay well 
inshore, and are warned of the enemy’s presence, 
for as soon as the Squid gets into too shallow water 
it begins to pump with great energy and to dis¬ 
charge its ink in large quantities. Thousands of 
them are stranded and perish when their eagerness 
for a dinner leads them into shallow water. 

TUNA (Thunnus thynnus) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page 45) 

Few fishes have a wider distribution than the 


I una, for it is found in all warm seas. It is pelagic 
in its habits and occurs as far north as Newfound¬ 
land. It is the Tuna of California and the Mediter¬ 
ranean, the Tunny of the British Isles, the great 
Albacore, or Horse Mackerel, of our Atlantic 
waters. It belongs to the Mackerel family, of 
which it is the largest representative. On the 
North Atlantic coast, where Tuna are caught from 
early summer to October, they are large and 
numerous. During one season a single fisherman 
harpooned 30 of them with an average weight of 
I,coo pounds. Some weighing 1,500 pounds have 
been taken. They also are caught on hooks baited 
with Herring attached to heavy lines. 

The European varieties do not attain such size, 
500 pounds being considered about the upper 
limit of their weight. On our California coast they 
are still smaller. 

It is on this coast that they are considered the 
game fish par excellence. Charles F. Holder once 
observed that, weight for weight, the Tuna has 
double the fighting power in it that the Tarpon 
possesses. He called it the tiger of the California 
coast, a living meteor that strikes like a whirlwind 
and plays like a storm. 

In American Atlantic waters the Tuna is found 
from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod. It feeds on Her¬ 
ring, Menhaden, and Bluefish. 

SHAD (Alosa sapidissima) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page 46) 

The Shad belongs to the Herring family and is 
an anadromous fish, spending the spring months in 
the rivers, where it spawns, and the rest of the 
year in deep-sea waters. On the Atlantic coast 
it enters all rivers between the St. Johns in Florida 
and the St. John in New Brunswick. Thanks to 
the good work in artificial propagation of the 
United States Bueau of Fisheries, Gulf of Mexico 
and Pacific coast rivers also know this delectable 
food fish to-day. 

Formerly Shad were surprisingly abundant; but 
they have to be taken at spawning time, since 
they are not within reach of human hands at any 
other season; therefore they are especially liable 
to extinction by overfishing. Were it not for pro¬ 
tective laws and artificial propagation, they would 
probably have disappeared almost entirely before 
now. The success of artificial propagation is shown 
by the fact that the Shad has been established 
along 2,000 miles of shore line on the Pacific 
where it never existed before, and that it remains, 
in spite of the heavy toll of overfishing, next to the 
Chinook Salmon, the most important river fish in 
America. But even with artificial propagation 
the catch has been diminishing at an alarming 
rate, having fallen off from 50,000,000 pounds in 
1898 to less than one-half as much in a recent 
year. Overfishing, the placing of dams across 
many rivers, and water pollution have been respon¬ 
sible for the decrease. 

The Shad does not appear to be a migrant from 
warmer to cooler waters with the advent of spring, 
as was formerly supposed. Rather, it seems to go 
out to the deep sea off the mouths of the several 
rivers it spawns in, and to remain there until the 
temperature of the river waters rises to about 60 
degrees. The Shad in southern rivers has black- 
tipped back and tail fins, which is a mark absent in 
those visiting northern rivers. 

d'he young fry, hatched out In the rivers, stay 


60 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



yielding as high as 150,000 eggs 
a season. The roe of no fish is 
more delicious than that of the 
Shad, and a planked Shad gar¬ 
nished with roe and bacon is as 
much a delight in the Nation’s 
Capital in 1923 as it was in the 
days of Mt. Vernon and Mar¬ 
shall Hall, when the Father of 
his Country and the Laird of 
Marshall Hall were friends. 

The Shad sometimes attains 
a length of more than 2 feet 
and a weight of 14 pounds, but 
the average weight has been 
falling as the decades have 
come and gone, until now it 
is probably under 4 pounds. 


Photograph by Christian W. Feigenspan 

TOWING AN 800 POUND TUNA TO PORT 


until the water falls below 60 degrees in the autumn, 
and then go out to sea and are not seen again until 
they enter the rivers to spawn, which is believed 
to be when they are three or four years old. The 
spawning Shad like to find water above 60 degrees, 
and go up the rivers, but the half-grown ones, 
preferring cooler water, stay behind. In 1882 there 
was a very late spring, the water not reaching 60 
degrees until after spawning time. It was noted 
that the half-grown accompanied their elders to 
the spawning grounds that year. 

During the spawning season the mature Shads 
seem to take no food at all. Their young, after 
hatching, feed on small crustaceans and insect 
larvjE until they go out to sea. The fact that the 
adults will rise to a skillfully placed fly at times 
indicates that their abstinence is due more to their 
impulse to hasten to spawn than to their lack of 
desire for food. They are a very prolific fish. 


ALEWIFE (Pomolobus 
pseudoharengus) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ 
page 47) 

The Alewife is a species of 
Herring abundant in North 
Atlantic waters, possessing 
many vernacular names. In 
some places it is known as the 
Branch Herring, in other local¬ 
ities as the Blear-eyed Herring, 
and elsewhere as the Wall-eyed 
Herring and the Gaspereau. It 
is found on our Atlantic coast 
from the Carolinas northward, 
in Lake Ontario, and in some of 
the small New York lakes tribu¬ 
tary to the St. Lawrence. Like 
the Shad, it goes up into the 
rivers to spawn, preceding that 
fish by two to three weeks. 

Those Alewives that have be¬ 
come land-locked in fresh water 
are greatly dwarfed in size. In 
Lake Ontario many millions die 
every summer. 

Another species, so closely re¬ 
lated that for a long time it was 
not differentiated from the 
Branch Herring, is Pomolobus 
cestivalis^ known in New Eng¬ 
land as the Summer Herring 
and in other localities by such 
names as Glut Herring, School 
Herring, Blueback, May Herring, Kyack, and 
Blackbelly. 

It is found from St. Johns River, Florida, along 
the entire Atlantic coast of the United States and 
the British Maritime provinces. The great centers 
of abundance are Albemarle Sound and Chesapeake 
Bay, where it is known as the Glut Herring, this 
term having reference to its abundance, which 
frequently leads to a glutted market. 

The circumstances under which the two species 
were differentiated form a tribute to the keen- 
eyedness of Potomac fishermen. The attention of 
the zoologists of what was then the Fish Com¬ 
mission was first called to the probable existence 
of the two species by the persistent opinions of 
the fishermen of the Potomac, who recognized two 
forms, differing somewhat both in habits and in 
appearance. These two forms they called respec¬ 
tively the Branch Herring and the Glut Herring. 


FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


61 


The first announcement of the discovery of the 
existence of two species and the definition of their 
respective characteristics was published in a report 
of the Virginia Fish Commission for 1879. Goode 
remarks that, although the coast fishermen of 
Massachusetts and Maine claim to distinguish 
between the Alewives and the Bluebacks, their 
judgment is by no means infallible, since, when he 
had finished sorting them out into two piles, the 
fishes which they distinguished under these names 
were not at all accurately classified. 

Like the Shad, both the Branch Herring and the 
Glut Herring are anadromous in habits. The dates 
of their first appearance in any given river closely 
agree with the movements of the Shad. The 
Branch Herring usually precedes the Shad by a 
fortnight or so and the Glut Herring comes about 
the middle of the Shad season. 

Little is known of the food of the river Alewives 
and of their salt-water habitat, although it is 
believed that they, like the Shad, feed largely on 
living crustaceans. In the rivers they seem to 
eat very little. 

They spawn after entering fresh water—the 
Branch Herring when the temperature has reached 
55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and the Glut Herring 
when it attains 70 to 75 degrees. 

The late Professor Baird regretted the absence 
of effort to restore the Alewife to its primitive 
abundance, and declared in one of his reports to 
Congress that the Alewife is in many respects 
superior in commercial and economic value to the 
Herring. He noted that it is a much larger and 
sweeter fish than the Herring, being more like the 
Shad. He attributed the diminution of the Ale¬ 
wife supply to the erection of dams and other 
barriers, and expressed the belief that the gradual 
wearing down of the Cod, Haddock, and Hake 
fisheries along the American coast is due more to 
the diminution of the Alewife supply than to any 
falling off in the number of sea Herring as food for 
these fishes. 

HERRING (Clupea harengus) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ 47 ) 

The Herring family includes not only the Her¬ 
rings, but also the Sardines, the Alewives, the 
Shads, and the Menhadens. 

Distributed throughout the entire North Atlantic 
Ocean, the Herring, Clupea harengus^ is probably 
the most important food fish in the world.^ 

With so many other species in competition, the 
Herring has never attained the popularity on 
American dinner tables that it has on those of 
Europe, where it forms a staple diet for millions; 
but even in our waters it is widely taken north of 
Cape Cod. Most of the fish are sold fresh, either 
for human food or Cod bait. Immense quantities 
of the young ones are packed and sold as Sardines. 

Years ago Professor Huxley estimated that three 
billion Herring were being caught annually. With 
the growth of the fishing industry in European 
waters, it has been estirnated that the annual 
catch now exceeds ten billion. A single shoal 
sometimes covers six square miles and is estimated 
to contain at least half as many Herring as the 
whole world catches in a year. Many such shoals 

are known to exist. , 

The Herring, unlike most fishes, is particularly 
fine-flavored at spawning time, and the fisheries 
are carried on busily during that season. Usually 


the Herring is taken with gill nets anchored below 
the surface of the waters, in which so many are 
sometimes enmeshed as to sink the buoys. Other 
forms of taking it are by means of weirs and torch¬ 
ing. The latter is particularly resorted to when 
cold weather sets in. A torch is set in the bow of 
the boat. The fish rise to the surface as the vessel 
glides swiftly along, and are scooped in without 
difficulty. 

The food of the Herring consists principally of 
“red feed” and Shrimp. They are in turn preyed 
on by a list of enemies as long as the moral law, 
ranging from finback whales, porpoises, and seals to 
Cod, Dogfish, and Squids. 

When schools of enemy fish attack the Herring 
the sea gulls are always on the job to gather up the 
scraps of the fray. 

The life history of the Herring has never been 
completely worked out. The facts known indicate 
that it lives in deep water off the coasts, coming 
inshore to spawn. There seems to be a number 
of distinct races, differing as to size, spawning 
time, and various other qualities and traits, each 
race swimming in a separate school and having 
its own particular time and ground for spawning. 
The number of eggs laid by a female ranges from 
10,000 to 50,000, it is said. 

TAUTOG (Tautoga onitis) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ p(igc 4 ^) 

The Tautog is a species of the Wrasse family, 
stockily built, with a range from New Brunswick 
to the Carolinas. North of New York it is called 
the Tautog, while New York knows it as the Black- 
fish. Farther south it is called the Oyster Fish. 
The average weight is about three pounds, though 
occasionally one is taken weighing as much as 22 
pounds. It has hard scales, a hard mouth, and a 
slipperiness that is eel-like. 

The Tautog’s food consists mainly of hard- 
shelled Mollusks, Squids, Scallops, Crabs, Barnacles, 
and Sand Darters. It eats them, shells and all, 
and then regurgitates the indigestible parts. 

Close relatives of Tautoga onitis are El Capitan, 
or the Hogfish, of Florida waters and the Fatheads 
or Redfishes of the southern California coast. 

All of the Tautogs belong to the Wrasse family, 
Labridce, which is one of the largest known, includ¬ 
ing some 450 species, divided into about 60 genera. 

BUTTER-FISH (Poronotus triacanthus) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ p^g^ 49 ) 

The Butter-fishes form a large group of small 
fishes, many famous for the fine quality of their 
flesh. Poronotus triacanthus is known as the Dollar- 
fish in Maine, the Butter-fish in Massachusetts and 
Norfolk, the Pumpkin Seed in Connecticut. It is a 
summer visitor, appearing and disappearing with 
the Mackerel. It has the habit of accompanying, 
in groups of ten or twelve, the Sun-squall Jelly¬ 
fishes in the inshore waters of the Middle Atlantic, 
seeming to seek shelter from its enemies under the 
Sun-squall’s disks, or possibly finding there a diet 
of the soft-bodied invertebrates that are constantly 
becoming entangled in the tentacles of the Jelly¬ 
fish. But its position is not always a safe one, 
since it sometimes is lassoed in these same tentacles 
and eaten by its host. 

The Harvest Fish {Peprilus paru), which ranges 
from Cape Cod to Brazil, but is especially abun¬ 
dant off the Virginia capes, is another member of 



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62 







FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


63 


the Butter-fish family. It reaches a length of lo 
inches, and has the peculiar habit of swimming 
under the Portuguese Man-of-War, probaWy 
gathering the scraps that fall from the table of 
that fish, as well as enjoying protection from its 
enemies. 

The Poppy Fish {Palometa simillimd) found on 
the sandy shores of California is a close duplicate 
of the Dollarfish, and the San Francisco epicure 
pays a high price for it, supposing it to be Pompano, 
though admitting that the Pompano of the Florida 
coast has a finer flesh and better flavor. 

SCUP (Stenotomus chrysops) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page pp) 

The Scup belongs to the Porgy family, which 
also includes the Porgies and the Sheepsheads. 
The Scup {Stenotomus chrysops) ranges between 
Cape Cod and the Carolinas. It is the Scup in 
New England, the Porgy in New York, and the 
Fair Maid farther south, getting back to the Porgy 
again at Charleston. New Englanders often call 
it the Scuppaug, a corruption of the Narraganset 
Indian name, Muscuppanog. As a food fish it is 
one of the commonest and is highly esteemed for 
its flavor. A bottom-feeder, the Scup’s diet is 
largely made up of Mollusks, small crustaceans, and 
worms. Along the South Atlantic coast the Scup 
is replaced by a closely related species Stenotomus 
aculeatus. 

ATLANl'IC SALMON (Salmo salar) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page 50) 

Eighteen hundred years ago Pliny wrote that 
the Salmon surpassed all the fishes of the sea in 
the river Aquitania. That is the earliest allusion 
to Salmo salar known in literature, and although 
scores of other species have been identified, still 
Salmo salar is the Salmon outside of the can¬ 
neries of the Pacific, which utilize other species. 

The species inhabits both sides of the Atlantic 
and ascends the rivers as far as it can go in the 
spawning time, going up the St. Lawrence and 
through Lake Ontario to Niagara Falls. 

At least half the Salmon’s life is spent in the 
ocean, recalling Izaak Walton’s remark that “he 
is ever bred in fresh rivers and never grows big 
but in the sea. . . . He has, like some other 

persons of honor and riches which have both their 
winter and summer houses, the fresh water for 
summer and the salt water for winter to spend his 
life in.” 

The Connecticut River once teemed with Salm¬ 
on, but dams exterminated the species therein. 
The same fate has befallen them in many other 
rivers. 

The young fish stay in fresh water for one or 
two years, and then wander out to sea, although 
they weigh only a few ounces when they go. There 
they find congenial food and grow rapidly. In 
that pleasant environment they remain until sum¬ 
moned, as Dr. Goode says, by the duties of family 
life to return to the narrow limits of the old home. 
When they live in the lakes they prey on Minnows 
and other small fishes, but those of the sea delight 
also in small crustaceans and crustacean eggs, to 
which they are said to owe the vivid color of their 
flesh. The habits of successive generations be¬ 
come hereditary traits and the differences in their 
life histories are held by many authorities to 


justify the belief that the land-locked Salmon is 
merely a variety of Salmo salar. 

Although the Salmon, like the Trout, spawn 
with a falling temperature, not depositing their 
eggs before the water has dropped to 50 degrees, 
they seem to enter the rivers on a rising tempera¬ 
ture. In the Connecticut they appear in April 
and May, in the Merrimac in May and June, and 
in the Penobscot in June and July. 

Temperature changes do not influence the move¬ 
ments of the Salmon as much as those of other 
species. It is said that two-thirds of the colony 
belonging to a particular river may be found in 
it in any season. This high proportion is made 
up of half the colony, less than a year old, and the 
breeding fish, which remain in the rivers six or 
seven months after the spawning season. 

When they leave the ocean, they first enter the 
brackish water at river mouths, where they remain 
for several weeks; then they start for the spawning 
grounds, which they usually reach in late summer. 
At the approach of the spawning season their 
trim shapes and bright colors disappear, leaving 
them lank and misshapen, with fins thick and 
fleshy and skin slimy and blotched. This trans¬ 
formation takes place especially in the males. The 
jaws become so curved that they touch only at 
the tip, the lower of which develops into a large 
and powerful hook, used as a weapon in the savage 
combats which they stage with their rivals. 

When the newly hatched Salmon appear they 
are about three-fourths of an inch long and the 
yolk sac is visible on them for from four to six 
weeks. When this is absorbed the youngling begins 
to feed, readily seizing any minute floating object. 
In two months it has grown to one and one-half 
inches and begins to assume the vermilion spots 
and transverse bars which it retains until it begins 
its descent to the sea, when it adopts a uniform 
bright silvery coat. After remaining in the sea for a 
period of from 4 to 28 months, it heads back to 
land, and then dawns the time that every fisherman 
loves, for at this stage nothing in the water sur¬ 
passes it in symmetrical beauty, brilliancy, agility, 
and pluck. Christopher North has called it “a 
salmon fresh run in love and glory from the sea. 

. . . She has literally no head; but her snout is 

in her shoulders. That is the beauty of a fish, 
high and round shoulders, short waisted, no loins, 
but all body and not long of terminating—the 
shorter still the better—in a tail sharp and pointed 
as Diana’s, when she is crescent in the sky.” 

SWORDFISH (Xiphias gladius) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page 5/) 

The Swordfish ranges in Atlantic waters from 
Cuba to Cape Breton. The extent of its range is 
attested by the fact that the Dutch call it the 
7 ivaard-Jis; the Italians, ^Sofia; the Spaniards, 
F.spada; and the French, Epee de Mer. Aristotle 
named it Xiphias some twenty-three centuries ago. 
It rivals the Sharks both in size and strength, 
sometimes reaching a weight of 800 pounds, al¬ 
though most of those caught weigh less than half 
as much. It usually appears on the shoals and 
banks in June and stays until the colder fall months 
set in. It is believed to come out of the deeper 
waters in search of food, since its spawning grounds 
are not in shallow regions. It apparently follows 
the Menhaden and Mackerel. Old fishermen have 
a saying that where you find Mackerel you may 



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64 









FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


65 


expect Swordfish. When swimming near the sur¬ 
face, it usually comes so close to the top that the 
tips of its back and tail fins are exposed. 

This exposure enables the fisherman to detect 
its presence, and, being given to swimming slowly 
at times, it is easily overtaken by a schooner with 
a light breeze to drive it. Every now and then it 
leaps entirely out of the water, and old fishermen 
attribute this to tormenting parasites; but modern 
authorities disagree with that theory. Be that as it 
may, one authority tells us that it strikes with 
the force of fifteen double-hammers and with the 
velocity of a swivel shot. 

Its stupidity in attacking ships and other objects 
sailing the seas is so great that Oppian tells us 
that “Nature her bounty to his mouth confined, 
gave him a sword, but left unarmed his mind.” 

The feeding habits of the Swordfish are striking. 
It is said that it swims under a school of small 
fishes, and then, suddenly rising to the top, thrashes 
about with its sword, killing a number of its prey 
in the act. These it promptly devours and then 
repeats the performance. 

It is said the Swordfish never comes to the sur¬ 
face except in moderate, smooth weather. Once 
it is sighted the lookout at the masthead “sings 
out,” and the skipper takes his place in the “pulpit,” 
on the end of the bowsprit, holding the harpoon 
pole in both hands by the small end. Directing the 
helmsman, he guides the vessel toward the quarry, 
and when the fish is eight or ten feet off the prow, 
rams the harpoon into its back. The fish is allowed 
plenty of line, and then two men go out in a yawl 
and maneuver the victim alongside, where it is 
killed with a whale lance. 

There are some of the thrills of whaling in sword¬ 
fishing, since there is no slow baiting or careful 
waiting and no bother with nondescript bait- 
stealers. The Swordfish is a worthy antagonist, 
and many a vessel has limped into port, leaking 
badly as a result of attacks by wounded Sword¬ 
fish. Occasionally a small boat is attacked and 
the sword rammed clear through its side. Once 
the sword punctured two inches into the heel of a 
sailor standing in a boat. 

SMELT (Osmerus mordax) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, 5 ^') 

The Smelts are structurally akin to the Salmons, 
being largely like them except in size. The other 
chief difference is in the form of the stomach, 
which, in the Smelts, is a blind sac, with the two 
openings close together, while in the Salmons it 
is siphon-shaped. All of the species are small and 
most of them stick strictly to the sea, although a 
few go up rivers to spawn, after the fashion of the 
Salmons. All of the abundant species are edible, 
the flesh being extremely delicate and often full of a 
fragrant, digestion-aiding oil. 

The leading American Smelt is Osmerus mordax, 
a shapely little creature that is rarely longer than 
lo inches. It ranges along the coast from the 
Virginia Capes to the St. Lawrence Gulf, and 
enters the streams and brackish bays to spawn 
during the winter months, when it is taken in great 
numbers, with hook and line and in nets. 

In going up streams some of the Smelts have 
lost their way and become landlocked in numerous 
lakes such as Champlain and Memphremagog. 

The fishermen take vast quantities of them dur¬ 
ing the winter, most of which are frozen and sent 


to the larger cities. Those that are not frozen are 
termed Green Smelts and are rated very high on the 
scale of finely flavored fish. Shrimps and other small 
crustaceans form the favorite food of this species. 

Captain John Smith, of Jamestown fame, wrote 
in 1622 that there was such an abundance of them 
that the Indians dipped them up from the rivers 
with baskets used like sieves. 

Another Smelt that belongs in the fine-food 
category is the Capelin, found from Cape Cod to 
the Arctic on the Atlantic coast and in Alaskan 
waters on the Pacific. Its eggs are deposited in 
vast quantities in the sands along the shore. These, 
washed up on the beaches, present the appearance 
of masses of little fishes, eggs, and sand. Hatching 
takes place in about thirty days, and the youngsters 
ride the first waves out into the sea. 

Still another Smelt that meets with favor where- 
ever it abounds is known as the Eulachon, or 
Candlefish {Thaleichthys pacificus), which lives in 
great numbers on the Pacific coast from Oregon 
northward. It is said to be unsurpassed in delicacy 
of flavor, which is described as exceeding that of 
any Trout. It is remarkable for its extreme oiliness, 
which is so great that, when dried and a wick put 
into its body, it serves as a candle; hence its name. 
The oil is sometimes extracted and used as a sub¬ 
stitute for cod-liver oil. At ordinary temperatures 
it is solid and lardlike in its consistency. 

TILEFISH (Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page yj) 

There is no greater wonder story of the seas 
than the history of the Tilefish. To-day a few 
connoisseurs pronounce it second only to the 
Pompano in flavor, and it is receiving much attention 
from those who are not Bourbons in matters of food. 

Prior to 1879 fine fish had no place in the 
roster of known fishes. In that year a New Eng¬ 
land trawler, fishing for Cod off the Nantucket 
coast, took 5,000 pounds of Tilefish, the first of 
which there is any record. Whether eaten fresh, 
salted, or smoked, the samples the trawler took 
home proved attractive. 

For three years there was widespread interest 
in this newly found food fish. Then, in April and 
May, steamers arriving from Europe reported 
seeing myriads of dead Tilefish. One steamer 
reported that it had sailed through 150 miles of 
them, and data gathered indicated that perhaps 
7,000 square miles of sea surface was strewn with 
the victims of some untoward circumstances of the 
sea. It was estimated that the total number of 
dead fish might reach a billion and a half. 

There were no signs of disease and no evidences of 
parasitic infection. Neither could the calamity be ac¬ 
counted for on the basis of attack by other creatures. 

All sorts of theories were advanced to explain 
the catastrophe—submarine volcanoes and poison¬ 
ous gases among them. 

It had been noted, however, that there was a 
strip of water, lying on the border of the Gulf 
Stream slope, between the Arctic current and the 
cold depths of the sea, which was warmer in 1879 
and 1880 than the normal water of that region. 
Dredging in this water had revealed many species 
of marine invertebrates characteristic of the waters 
of the lower latitude, a sort of tropical faunal 
peninsula in the sea. 

In 1882, after the vast schools of Tilefish had 
disappeared, this region was resurveyed. It was 


66 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



SWORDFISH TAKEN IN CAPE BRETON WATERS 

It has long been the opinion of ichthyologists that the Swordfish’s spawning ground is in the Mediter¬ 
ranean Sea. The fact that small ones are constantly caught in the Mediterranean, but that only larger 
ones are taken in American waters, seemed to justify the conclusion that they did not spawn on this side 
of the Atlantic. But a small Swordfish weighing less than eight pounds has been taken near Boston and a 
female containing spawn landed at New Bedford. This evidence serves to reopen the question. 
















FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 


67 



Photograph from H. L. Rust, Jr. 

A “GIANT” LOBSTER THAT LOST ITS LUCK 


Big fellows like the one here shown are probably not giants of their species, but merely those to whom 
fate was so kind as to allow them to grow to their full maturity. It may have escaped the perils of half a 
century before the luckless hour when it became enmeshed in some fisherman’s gear. 


found that the v.mter was colder, and that the 
marine life that formerly occupied this thermal 
peninsula had disappeared. What had happened 
was that northern gales had driven Arctic ice down 
into the area and had made the water too cold for 
the Tilefish to bear. 

It was predicted that if this were the correct 
explanation, and if the water came back to its 
usual temperature again, the Tilefish would ulti¬ 
mately reappear. But years went by and not a single 
survivor of the catastrophe was found. Fears began 
to be entertained that the species had been wholly 
exterminated by the calamity that had befallen it. 

But in 1892 the Grampus caught eight. In¬ 
creasing catches with successive years showed that 
the Tilefish was gradually reestablishing itself, 
just as the scientists had predicted it would. 

But after the Tilefish appeared again the task 
arose of introducing it to the dining table of the 
American people. Possessed of a flesh of fine 
texture and good flavor, the difficulty lay only in 
the inertia of the people against trying new kinds 
of food. The Bureau of Fisheries, however, under¬ 
took propaganda in favor of the Tilefish and met 
with fair success. For awhile it was the most 
advertised fish in American waters. At present it 
has to rely on its own flavor to carry it to a wider 
and disinclined-to-try-new-things clientele. 

AMERICAN LOBSTER (Homarus americanus) 
{For illustration see Color Plate^ P^Z^ 54 ) 

The American Lobster is an edible crustacean 
found on the coasts of the North Atlantic Ocean 


and the Mediterranean Sea—on our coast especially 
from Delaware to Labrador. It inhabits waters 
from the shore out to the loo-fathom line and is 
most numerous on the shores of Maine and Nova 
Scotia. It prefers rocky bottoms, though it may be 
found in other environments, and usually, though 
not without exception, leaves the shallower waters 
during the winter months and finds temperatures 
more to its requirements beyond the loo-fathom line. 

All kinds of animals, both living and dead, and 
some vegetable matter are pleasing to its appetite. 
Although dangerous prey to attack, the Lobsters, 
in spite of their hard shells, powerful claws, and 
burrowing habits, fall victim to the Cod, the Tautog, 
the Skate, and the Dogfish, which annually destroy 
millions of them, particularly the young ones, the 
egg-bearing females, and the molting adults. 

The effect of overfishing for Lobsters shows more 
in the steady decline in the size of those taken 
than in the diminution of numbers. The pro¬ 
vision of a closed season does not accomplish much, 
since the female carries her spawn attached to her 
body for about ten months. Regulations requiring 
the release of females carrying spawn—“in berry,” 
as that condition is known to the Lobster fishermen 
—have been made, but are usually ineffective. 

The number of eggs produced by a female 
Lobster varies from 3,000 to 100,000, depending 
upon the size and age of the individual, maturity 
being reached in from three to four years. It is 
believed that it lays only every other year. 

The Lobsters are usually caught in traps known 
as Lobster pots, made of ordinary plastering lath 
and having a funnel-shaped opening made of tarred 



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68 





PROMINENT SPECIES OF THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC COASTAL WATERS 


69 


netting, permitting easy ingress, but closed against 
exit. The traps are sunk on Lobster-frequented 
grounds and baited usually with pieces of stale 
fish. The European Lobster is nearly always sent 
to market in the fresh state, while many of those 


caught in American waters are canned. The 
European variety seldom reaches a weight of lo 
pounds, while those of our shores occasionally weigh 
as much as 25 pounds. The largest one ever taken, 
according to the records, weighed 34 pounds. 


Prominent Species of the Middle Atlantic 

Coastal Waters 


Out of the waters ot Chesapeake Bay and the 
Middle Atlantic coast from the Carolinas to Cape 
Cod come annually thousands of tons of well 
flavored fish for American tables. No fish as staple 
as the Cod of the Grand Banks and no fighter that 
quite ranks with the Tarpon of Florida waters, 
is found along the middle coast, but none the 
less, its representatives are leading favorites in the 
big markets of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia 
and New York and scores of smaller inland places 
to which they are shipped daily in refrigerator cars. 

Three familiar varieties alone, the Squeteague or 
Weakfish, Striped Bass, and Bluefish, provide about 
21,000,000 pounds of food annually. The gamy 
Squeteague, which ranks chief in quantity, is well 
and favorably known to the sport fisherman and 
will put up an excellent fight when hooked either 
in deep water or in the surf. 

With the cold waters of the Labrador Current 
and the Gulf Stream’s edge fusing along the Middle 
Atlantic coast, the fishes of this section have appar¬ 
ently adapted themselves to temperature change. 
Thus the Striped Bass and Mullet are found all up 
and down the east coast, but the chief quantities for 
market come from the Middle Atlantic region. The 
Bluefish, found in nearly all ocean waters, is obtained 
for American markets chiefly on fishing grounds 
from Long Island to Florida. Sea Bass, Kingfish 
or Northern Whiting, Sheepshead, and Bonito, are 
also among the “first families’’ of the Middle 
Atlantic coast species and much can be said for 
them, from the standpoint of both sport and table. 

SQUETEAGUE (Cynoscion regalis) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page J2) 

The Squeteague, also known as the Common 
Weakfish, is caught in large numbers along the 
Atlantic Coast between Massachusetts and Florida. 
In North Carolina it is found almost throughout 
the year, but is most abundant from early spring to 
late fall. 

It first appears in large schools in April and May, 
appearing in various bays and sounds along the 
Atlantic Coast. A little later part of the fish 
migrate to the ocean to spawn and part accomplish 
spawning in the larger bays such as the Chesapeake. 
In the Chesapeake Bay region the first run of fish 
appears between April i and May i, according to 
the water temperature. A heavy run of fish occurs 
until June. During the summer catches of corn- 
mercial proportion decrease somewhat, yet, again 
in October good catches are made—especially of 
large fish. The last of the fish leave the Bay by 
about December i, and are not found throughout 
the winter. 


In this case spawning occurs from May to July, 
depending somewhat upon the latitude. Gravid 
males are frequently found until late August. The 
spawning takes place on the bottom; but as soon as 
the eggs are extruded and fertilized they float to 
the surface, and are carried about by the tidal 
currents until hatched. 

While there are authentic records of Squeteague 
weighing 18 pounds being taken, and fisherman’s 
stories of thirty pound ones, fish weighing as much 
as 12 pounds and measuring as long as 33 inches 
are uncommon. 

Little is known about the migratory habits of the 
Squeteague. Whether it seeks warmer waters in 
its summer latitudes in . the depths of the Gulf 
Stream or finds them in the southern ocean, is not 
known definitely to science. 

In southern waters this species is known as the 
Sea Trout, or Gray Trout. 

The annual catch of Squeteague in Atlantic 
waters ranges around 15,000,000 pounds. 

A closely related species, the Spotted Squeteague, 
is an abundant and valuable fish found along the 
South Atlantic and Gulf coasts. 

STRIPED BASS (Roccus lineatus) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page pk) 

This striking denizen of middle Atlantic waters 
has a range reaching from the St. Lawrence, in 
Canada, to Mobile Bay, Alabama; but in com¬ 
mercial quantity is most common between Long 
Island and Cape Hatteras. It ascends fresh water to 
spawn and is particularly common in brackish bays 
and rivers where it may be found throughout the 
year. 11 is equally at home in the sea where it spends 
a good part of its life. Its migrations differ from 
those of Shad, as the Striped Bass hibernates over 
the winter season and is found at this’time in the lower 
Potomac River, and other suitable waters. There is a 
definite spring run when spawning takes place, but 
it may be caught throughout the year in Chesapeake 
Bay and Albemarle Sound, North Carolina. 

As many as 1500, it is reported, have been taken 
at a single haul of a large seine. There are records 
of individuals being caught that tipped the scale’s 
beam at 125 pounds. Heavy fishing, however, has 
changed all of this, so that a weight of 75 pounds is 
now rarely achieved. Most of the market catch 
weighs between i and 15 pounds, but fish weighing 
from 25 to 60 pounds are not unusual. 

The Striped Bass is a rather long-lived fish. 
Several two year old specimens placed in the tanks 
of the New York Aquarium, when it was opened, 
lived there for sixteen years and one survived 
nineteen years. 


70 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by H. Armstrong Roberts 


LANDING A SIX-POUND WEAKFISH, OR SQUETEAGUE, IN BARNEGAT BAY, NEW JERSEY 

The Weakfish did not get its name from any lack of gameness, but rather from the softness of its 
mouth parts. At the end of a line and rod of sportsmanlike proportions it can give the fisherman who 
hooks it a battle that calls for all the resources of skill to bring it to the landing net. 


Fish culture as applied to this species has richly 
justified itself. A number of small Striped Bass were 
taken from the Atlantic to the Pacific and placed in 
West Coast rivers over a quarter of a century 
ago. Today there are many millions of them in 
Pacific waters. 

The catch of this species in Atlantic waters 
reaches nearly 2,000,000 pounds annually. On the 
Pacific Coast the annual catch amounts to about 
1,000,000 pounds. 

SEA BASS (Centropristes striatus) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ -page yj) 

Feeding upon Crabs, Shrimps, small fish and 
Squids, the Sea Bass usually spends its time moving 
about sluggishly on the floor of the coastal waters or 
lying among loose stones and in rock cavities. It is 
found from Gloucester, Massachusetts, to Jackson¬ 


ville, Florida. Its region of greatest abundance 
extends from Montauk Point, Long Island, to 
North Carolina, and it is rare north of Nantucket, 
Massachusetts. 

While Sea Bass weighing as high as 7P2 pounds 
have been taken, the average size of those landed 
is around 2 pounds. As a food fish it takes high 
rank, its flesh being distinguished alike for its 
flakiness and sweetness. 

The spawning time of this species occurs in May 
and June. 

The family Serranidae, to which the Sea Bass 
belongs, is one made up of a large number of species. 

BLUEFISH (Pomatomus saltatrix) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page pp) 

The Bluefish can boast of being in a class all by 
itself. It constitutes a family with a single species. 






PROMINENT SPECIES OF THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC COASTAL WATERS 


71 


A cosmopolite of the oceans, it is found around 
the Malay Archipelago, Australia, Africa, the 
Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere, but is strangely 
missing on the Atlantic Coast of Europe and around 
Bermuda. It ranges from Maine to Texas, though 
found primarily from Long Island to the east coast 
of Florida, where it is caught from April to late 
October. It visits southern Florida waters only in 
midwinter. Traveling in great schools and attack¬ 
ing other fishes with a wantonness nowhere exceeded 
in the whole world of finny folk, Bluefish make 
Menhaden their principal food, and their abun¬ 
dance or scarcity depends largely on the annual crop 
of these Herring of the sea. 

Professor Baird once called it unparalleled in its 
destructiveness, and another authority likened it to 
an animated chopping-machine whose business is 
to cut to pieces and destroy as many fish as possible. 

More wanton than weasels, they travel in vast 
schools marking their trail with fragments of fish 
and stains of blood. 

Like a pack of wolves, they attack everything in 
their path, killing many times as much prey as 
they can eat, seemingly from the sheer fun of 
killing. 

Being of excellent flavor, the Bluefish has become 
one of America’s most important food fishes, and 
always commands a relatively high price. 

BONITO (Sarda sarda) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ Page 7^) 

The Bonito belongs to that eminent family of 
fishes, the Mackerels. Among its cousins are the 
Common Mackerels, the Frigate Mackerels, the 
Tunnies, the Albacores and the Kingfishes. 

It lives mainly in the open sea, wddely wandering 
in vast schools and approaching land only in search 
of food or for spawning. Its summer range is from 
Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Cape Sable, Florida; 
it is also found in the Gulf of Mexico. It some¬ 
times reaches a length of from 2 to 3 feet, and a 
weight of from 10 to 12 pounds; but usually does 
not exceed 6 pounds. 

The flesh of the Bonito often passes current as 
Spanish Mackerel, though it is far inferior to that 
fish in edibility. 

The late Professor Goode called the Bonito a 
marvel of beauty and strength, and asserted that it 
is one of the ocean’s fastest swimmers, being built 
on such fine stream-line proportions, and having 
such a polished-surface body that water resistance 
is brought down to negligibility. “The bonitoes,” 
said he, “in our sounds to-day may have been 
passing Cape Colony or the Land of Fire day 
before yesterday,” so fast can they glide through 
the water. 

Over 2,000,000 pounds of Bonito are taken each 
year in American Atlantic waters. 

MULI.ET (Mugil cephalus) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page 75) 

The Striped Mullet for a long time ranking low 
in the list of food fishes, has recently become 
one of the most highly regarded, especially when 
eaten soon after being captured. No less an 


authority than the late President Harding declared 
on his_ last trip to Florida that he found it an 
exceedingly palatable fish. It is the most valuable 
food fish caught along the south Atlantic and Gulf 
coasts. 

Belonging to a family which includes the Lisita 
and the Dajao, it is quite cosmopolitan in its range, 
being found alike in the Atlantic and the Pacific, 
from Massachusetts to Brazil and from California 
to Chile. It likewise is found on the coasts of 
southern Europe and northern Africa. 

Traveling in schools, the Striped Mullet is abun¬ 
dant in salt water or brackish water areas. It 
reaches a length of 30 inches and a weight of 10 
pounds. In southern Florida fish 20 to 24 inches 
long are common, but in the northern part of its 
range it seldom exceeds 16 inches. It is not given 
to preying on other fish as are the Bluefish, for 
instance. Rather, it gets its nourishment by chew¬ 
ing mud and separating the small food particles 
therefrom. Naturally, therefore, it is a bottom 
feeder. 

SHEEPSHEAD (Archosargus probatocephalus) 
{For illustration see Color Plate, page 75) 

The Common Sheepshead has a range that sweeps 
from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Corpus Christi, 
Texas, though it does not wander as far south as 
the West Indies. Once rather common, it is now 
rare north of Cape Henry, Virginia. It is found in 
greatest abundance between North Carolina and 
Texas. - 

Unlike so many other fishes, it does not travel in 
schools, but wanders about singly or in small 
groups. Crustaceans, Mollusks and sea plants are 
its favorite food. 

The spawning season of the Sheepshead begins in 
February and lasts until May. The maximum 
weight is 30 pounds, though the average in the 
southern part of its range is from 2 to 5 pounds. 
In the Chesapeake Bay, where it is now uncommon, 
the usual size is from 5 to 15 pounds. 

The Sheepshead belongs to the Porgy family. 
Among its cousins are the Scup and the Porgies. 

It is one of the most important fish caught in 
the Gulf States, where one and a half million pounds 
are taken annually. 

KINGFISH (Menticirrhus saxatilis) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page 76) 

The Kingfish, locally known also as the Northern 
Whiting and Sea Mink, is found from Cape Ann to 
southern Florida. It reaches its greatest abundance 
in the northern part of its range. As a food fish 
it ranks high. The name Whiting also attaches 
to the Silver Hake, the Hogfish, and many other 
species. 

This fish belongs to the Kingfish genus of the 
Croaker family {Sciaenidae), which family embraces 
the Weakfishes or Squeteagues, and Sea-drums. 

Most closely related to it are such species as the 
Carolina Whiting, of the South Atlantic, and the 
Silver Whiting, of the Gulf coast. The California 
Whiting on the Pacific coast is another of its close 
relatives. 



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Painted by Hashime Murayania 

SEA BASS {Centropristes striatus) 

The Sea Bass usually moves sluggishly about the ocean floor feeding on Crabs, Shrimps, small fish and Squids. While it is found from Gloucester, Massachusetts, 
to Jacksonville, Florida, its region of greatest abundance is from Montauk Point, Long Island, to North Carolina. The average size of Sea Bass is two pounds. 




























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76 








Our Heritage of the Fresh Waters 

By CHARLES HASKINS TOWNSEND 

Director of the New York Aquarium 


S INCE the beginning of time man¬ 
kind has been able to get some part 
of his food from the waters; among 
the relics of the Stone Age are shell 
hooks and stone sinkers. Ancient sculp¬ 
tures—Assyrian, Egyptian, and Aztec— 
portray the taking of fishes with spear, 
hook, and net. 

The prophet Habakkuk—who knows 
how many centuries B. C.?—placed some 
details on fishing m the earliest literature: 
“They take up all of them with the angle, 
they catch them in their net, and gather 
them in their drag.” 

In some of the far corners of the world 
amazingly primitive ways of getting fishes 
are still in use. 

In the mountain streams of New 
Guinea the still-savage native has been 
found using a dip net made of a hoop 
fitted with a piece of unbelievably tough 
spider web. 

We have seen the Aleut drag up a 
heavy halibut with a huge hook of bent 
wood, the Fuegian make a successful 
throw with his bone-pointed spear, and 
the Tonga islander stupefy hundreds of 
fishes with the juices of a poisonous plant. 

The modern Japanese fisher has not yet 
lost the ancient art of making the cor¬ 
morant fish for him without the trouble 
of providing either hook or bait. 

OUR FRESH-WATER FISH RESOURCES ARE 
CONSTANTLY DIMINISHING 

In considering the resources of our 
fresh waters, we find everywhere ex¬ 
haustive methods of fishing and a di¬ 
minishing supply, in spite of restrictive 
measures and extensive fish propagation. 

The means by which diminution is 
measured are to be found in the fishery 
statistics of the past half century. The 
annual yield of products—still very 
large—can be safely viewed only in com¬ 
parison with the continual increase and 
improvement in the apparatus of capture. 

It takes more and more gear to make 
the same catch. In the Great Lakes, our 


largest reservoirs of fresh water fish food, 
the investment in the fishery industry 
now exceeds 110,000,000. The principal 
fish-catching devices, such as pound nets, 
fyke nets, and gill nets, practically 
automatic in operation, are filling day 
and night as long as the Lakes are free 
from ice. 

The rivers and lakes of the United 
States have fishery resources that are un¬ 
equaled elsewhere. The Great Lakes are 
virtually inland seas and the navigable 
rivers are among the largest in the world. 
The mighty Mississippi, with its tribu¬ 
taries reaching in all directions, fairly 
dominates the map of the country. 

These waters, with the rivers of the 
Atlantic and Pacific coasts and many 
lakes of the Northern States, have been 
enormously productive in food for our 
people. 

TONS OF FOOD FROM GREAT LAKES 

In one year commercial fishermen alone 
have taken from the Mississippi River 
and its tributaries more than 96,000,000 
pounds of fish, while the Great Lakes 
yielded more than 113,000,000 pounds. 

Large as are the food supplies of these 
two regions at the present time, they must 
have been vastly greater before the ex¬ 
ploitation of their resources began. Un¬ 
fortunately, there are no official records 
by which the extent of the earlier fishery 
operations may be measured. 

While the fish food derived from our 
fresh waters is vast in quantity, it is also 
notable in variety. There are many kinds 
of Trouts, Salmons, Whitefishes, Stur¬ 
geons, Pikes, Basses, Sunfishes, Perches, 
Catfishes, the Shad and the Eel, as well as 
the less important, but abundant and 
widely distributed. Chubs and Suckers. 

In addition to the familiar food and 
game fishes, our waters are rich in Min¬ 
nows, Darters, Shiners, and other small 
fry of no direct economic value, but of 
vast importance as the food supply of 
larger fishes. Every great watershed has 


78 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by William H. Zerbe 

ON HIS WAY TO THE HUNTING GROUND OF YOUTH 



OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


79 



Haynes, St. Paul 


CATCHING YOUR FISH AND COOKING IT WITHOUT MOVING FROM YOUR TRACKS 

The Yellowstone Trout {Salmo lewisi) is very abundant in Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National 
Park. The “boiling pot” is one of the numerous hot-water holes to be found in this region. The sur¬ 
rounding water is cold. 


its peculiar forms of these, all well known 
to ichthyologists, who have described and 
named them by the score. 

Some of our smallest fishes have been 
found useful in combating malaria and 
annoyance caused by mosquitoes, and are 
even being shipped by the United States 
Bureau of Fisheries to mosquito-plagued 
foreign countries. There is now in prog¬ 
ress much active investigation regarding 
the value of several species of fishes for 
the control of the mosquito. 

UNITED STATES HAS FIVE TIMES AS MANY 
KINDS OF FISHES AS EUROPE 

The richness of fish life in our fresh 
waters is amazing. The United States 
has a smaller area than Europe, yet it has 
nearly five times as many kinds of fresh¬ 
water fishes. We have about 585 species 
of these, while Europe has but 126 
species. 

We find that a single State may have 
considerably more than 100, the number 
known to Illinois being 150, while New 
York is credited with 141. It could doubt¬ 
less be shown that our fresh-water fish¬ 


ery resources are greater than those of 
any other country. 

Many of the fishes commonly taken for 
food or in sport fishing, and naturally of 
wide distribution, have, as a result of fish- 
cultural operations, been established in 
sections of the country far removed from 
their original habitat. 

A fish belonging to the Mississippi 
system or to the Atlantic slope often 
takes full possession of a new water¬ 
shed, as the result of mere trans-planta¬ 
tion of limited numbers. 

Although the numbers of fishes caught 
by anglers do not figure in statistics of 
the catch made for market, they are not 
without high economic and other values. 
Most of the Northern States are visited in 
summer by tourists interested primarily 
in good angling waters. 

Lakes far and wide have become 
summer resorts for people who find much 
of their recreation in fishing. Railways 
and summer resorts widely advertise the 
resources of their waters. Summer 
visitors, moving actually by hundreds of 
thousands, carry into these States millions 


80 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



FISHING IN SKYKOMISH RIVER NEAR INDEX, WASHINGTON 

There are several kinds of Trouts in the waters of Washington State, mostly the “Cutthroat” forms, which 

are more numerous in the Rocky Mountain region. 



OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


81 


of dollars. The trade 
in angling equipment 
alone is extensive. 

Who can measure 
the health and esthetic 
values attendant upon 
the angling idea? Some 
one has recently as¬ 
serted that the angling 
habit is conducive to 
long life, and, begin¬ 
ning with Izaak Wal¬ 
ton, who lived to be 
ninety, presents a 
lengthy list of cele¬ 
brated fishermen who 
lived well into the 
eighties and nineties, 
many of them promi¬ 
nent in the literature 
of American -angling. 

Fresh-water fish cul¬ 
ture in the United 
States has been carried 
on for more than fifty 
years in steadily in¬ 
creasing volume, in the 
effort to keep pace with 
a depletion by fishery 
industries that con¬ 
stantly threaten ex¬ 
haustion of the fish 
supply. 



POLLUTION A DANGER¬ 
OUS MENACE 

The great fishery 
problem of the time 
in our country is the 
pollution of the fresh 
waters by innumerable 
agencies, rapidly affect¬ 
ing their productiveness. Unless stern 
measures are introduced by law to correct 
this, soon one of our great natural eco¬ 
nomic gifts will be seriously stricken. 

When we consider that the market catch 
in the Great Lakes alone sometimes ex¬ 
ceeds 100,000,000 pounds a year, that 
legions of anglers are overfishing the Trout 
and Bass streams everywhere, and that 
pollution of the rivers by manufacturing 
industries has reached appalling propor¬ 
tions, it is apparent that our heritage of 
the waters is endangered to a serious 
degree. 

lush culture alone cannot save it, even 
if greatly increased. We are already 


Photograph from U. S. Bureau of Fisheries 

THE MAGNIFIED SCALE OF A DOG SALMON 

This scale was taken from a mature male in its fourth year. Note 
the “rings,” like those of the cross-section of a tree, by means of which 
the age of a fish can now be computed. 

wasting expensive propagation work in 
stocking waters no longer suitable for 
fish life, and many streams have been 
abandoned to their fate. One could name 
a score of rivers in mining and manu¬ 
facturing States, once contributing to the 
food supply, that now contain no living 
thing—no fish or Mussel or Crayfish, 
not even the air-breathing Frog. These 
rivers represent damaged resources and 
there are others that may soon be like 
them. 

Reforms come so slowly that the great 
cleaning-up task ahead of the American 
people is not likely to be undertaken seri¬ 
ously until conditions become intolerable. 





82 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



© Roland W. Reed 


THE “FISHING ROD” OF THE OJIBWAY INDIANS OF NORTHERN MINNESOTA 
Most of the northern tribes of Inilians are adepts with the fish spear. 









OUR HERri AGE OF THE FRESH WA'l'ERS 


83 



Photograph hy Eugene J. Hall 


FISHING IN THE GORGE BELOW NIAGARA FALLS 

'I'he Great Lakes constitute a vast inland reservoir of fish life, the annual commercial catch sometimes 

exceeding 100,000,000 pounds. 


In many countries all wastes available for 
fertilization are restored to the land and 
not sent insensately through sewers into 
the streams, while manufacturing wastes 
are converted into valuable by-products. 
The exhaustion of our fresh-water re¬ 
sources through overfishing and water 
pollution is not inevitable. There is now 
a saving fund of knowledge relative both 
to propagation and protective measures, 
awaiting application through the force 
of aroused and insistent public demand. 

A more recent but increasing danger to 
which angling waters are exposed lies in 


the ever-increasing use of the automo¬ 
bile. Bass and Trout waters heretofore 
reached with difficulty have become the 
easily accessible resorts of camping par¬ 
ties, with the result that their resources 
are being exhausted. 

Many as are the sportsmen taking toll 
of our wild life with the gun, those who 
use the rod are vastly more numerous. 
It is as easy to exhaust a small stream 
by overfishing as it is to exhaust the 
quail supply of a neighborhood. For¬ 
tunately, the preservation of the fishes 
is always possible through the employ- 



84 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



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ment of safeguards and restorative 
measures. Our fishing will doubtless 
last longer than our shooting. 

Private fish culture would be 
of great service in maintaining and 
increasing our supply of fish food. 
While it has been practiced for 
centuries in some European coun¬ 
tries, it has but little more than 
commenced in America. 

The possessors of strongly flowing 
springs, brooks, and small lakes should 
be awakened to the value of their 
home resources for water farming. 
Approved methods for the construc¬ 
tion and management of fish ponds 
have been worked out at public fish- 
cultural stations and instructive pub¬ 
lic documents on the subject can be 
had for the asking. 

Fish-culturists assert that an acre 
of water can be made to yield more 
food than an acre of land and the 
truth of the assertion has been dem¬ 
onstrated. 

MUSSELS DEPENDENT UPON 
FISH HOSTS 

An interesting work in aquicul- 
ture is now being carried on in the 
Mississippi Valley under the direction 
of the Bureau of Fisheries. It is 
based upon the fact that the pro¬ 
pagation of the Mussel is dependent 
upon the presence of fishes to which 
the young, free-swimming Mussels 
may attach themselves as parasites 
until they are old enough to form 
shells and begin an independent 
existence. 

The large, heavy-shelled Mussels of 
this region have been gathered in such 
numbers for the manufacture of pearl 
buttons, and also for the valuable 
pearls they sometimes contain, that 
the supply is being exhausted and 
the important industry dependent 
upon the Mussel is in danger. 

The Mussel industry annuallyyields 
6 o,ooo tons of shells which are worth 
more than ^i,000,000. We are all 
wearing pearl buttons from this 
source, which will be missed if the 
great river becomes too foul for the 
growth of Mussels. 

Young Mussels attach chiefly to 
the gills of fishes, and in some species 




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86 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by R. R. Sallows 

RIGHT OUT OF COLD STORAGE 

Breaking winter’s seal on fishing waters is a well enjoyed sport of fishermen in the northern tier of 
states. The many small glacier-dug lakes freeze over although the Great Lakes seldom gather a coat 
thick enough to permit fishing through the ice. This style of fishing is common among the Eskimos. 


CUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


87 



Photograph by Ih R. Sanborn, New York Zoological Society 


YOUNG SMALL-MOUTH BLACK BASS WINTERING IN AN AQUARIUM 

The fish remain poised in mid-tank, crowded closely together. As long as plants can be kept growing 
in the cold water the fish will pack themselves tightly among them. While the temperature of the water 
remains low, the fish seldom take food. 


to the fins, during the early period of their 
lives. It is now practically certain that 
all Mussel spawn which fail to find a suit¬ 
able fish host sink to the bottom and die. 

The young Mussels are temporarily pro¬ 
vided with minute hooks for attachment 
and are soon enveloped in the epithelium 
of the fish, where they remain encysted 
until the shell begins to form and they can 
safely drop off. 

All fishes are not equally susceptible to 
these temporary mollusk parasites; some 
receive very few, others shed them too 
soon, while still others die as a result of 
carrying too many. Practical work is in 


progress, and large numbers of fishes 
“infected,” as it is called, with young 
Mussels are liberated to stock the public 
waters, as their “parasites” develop and 
fall off. 

TURTLES, FROGS, AND CRAYFISH 

The “planting” of the Mussels is, there¬ 
fore, left to the fishes. It is even possible 
to send Mussel-bearing fishes to waters 
outside the Mississippi system and thus 
introduce the more valuable Mussels else¬ 
where. 

There are several species of large Tur¬ 
tles of the kinds known as “sliders” in 





88 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



of frog-culture. It is 
to be hoped that some 
method of conserva¬ 
tion will be found be¬ 
fore the natural suppl y 
approaches the point 
of exhaustion. 

The annual market 
supply of fresh-water 
Turtles and Frogs has 
been known to exceed 
half a million pounds 
of each, the great bulk 
of the catch being de¬ 
rived from the Missis¬ 
sippi and its tribu¬ 
taries. 

The humble Cray¬ 
fish, although of small 
size, figures promi¬ 
nently in the aquatic 
food supply. Lake 
Michigan leading with 
over 200,000 pounds 
annually. 


FOODS OF FISHES 


Photograph by H. Armstrong Roberts 

THREE-POUND SPECKLED BEAUTY, NIPIGON RIVER, CANADA 


our fresh-water streams and lakes, es¬ 
pecially in the Middle and Southern 
States, that contribute to the food supply. 
They have long been used in filling the 
ever-widening vacancy in the markets 
formerly occupied by that favorite of the 
epicure, the Diamond-backed Terrapin of 
the salt-water marshes. 

They have so high an edible value that 
it is whispered we often pay Terrapin 
prices for Turtles that never saw brackish 
water. Fishery officials are aware of their 
importance and have studied their distri¬ 
bution, methods of capture, and conser¬ 
vation. 

Frogs of several kinds are valued 
aquatic food delicacies, and their habits 
have received considerable attention with 
the view to developing a practical system 


A subject of per¬ 
petual interest to all 
who fish with the rod 
is the food of fishes. 
There are moments in 
the lives of all of us 
when the most im¬ 
portant thing in the 
world seems to be how 
to get the fish to bite. 
The problem is taken 
as seriously by the 
captain of some great industry, off on a 
fishing trip, supplied with the most expen¬ 
sive tackle, as by the barefooted urchin 
with a homemade pole, and doubtless the 
man of business is the more serious of 
the two. 

Thanks to the patient laboratory in¬ 
vestigations of Professor S. A. Forbes, 
this dark question has been made lumi¬ 
nous. He tells us that while the food of 
fishes consists chiefly of other fishes, it 
includes practically the whole aquatic 
fauna—a comforting fact when we would 
seek for baits. 

Fishes not only feed on other fishes and 
on insects, but on crustaceans, mollusks, 
and worms. Plants do not constitute 
much of their food, although a few kinds 
feed on them, such as Buffalo-fishes, 


OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


89 



Photograph by A. W. Cutler 

FISH THAT EAT OUT OF.A FRIENDLY HAND 

In a pool on the estate of Kenneth McDougall, Port Lopn, Scotland, the fish, mostly Cod, will take food 

from the keeper’s hand. 


Carps, and Minnows. Some fishes get 
food by rooting in mud, while others are 
inclined to be scavengers. 

Among the chiefly fish-eating fishes may 
be mentioned Pike, Pickerel, Muskellunge, 
Pike-perch, Burbot, Gar, Black Bass, and 
Channel Catfishes. Those taking fish 
food in moderate amounts are represented 
by Bream, Blue-cheeked Sunfish, Mud¬ 
fish, White Bass, Rock Bass, and Crappie. 

Fishes which feed on other fishes to a 
trivial extent are White Perch, Suckers, 
Spoonbill, the various Darters, Top Min¬ 
nows and Silversides, Sticklebacks, Mud 
Minnows, Stone-cats, and common Min¬ 
nows. The whole Minnow tribe contrib¬ 
utes to the food of the smaller fish- 
eaters. 

In the Mississippi region the Gizzard- 
shad constitutes 40 per cent of the food 
of the Wall-eyed Pike, 30 per cent that of 
the Black Bass, half that of the Pike, and 
a third that of the Gars. This is a good 
illustration of the usefulness of an 
abundant species of little importance as 
food for man. 

Mollusks—^.the Snails and Mussels of 
various species—are also important as 


fish food. They form large proportions 
of the food of Catfishes, Suckers, Fresh¬ 
water Drum, and Mudfish. About 16 per 
cent of the food of Perches, Sunfishes, 
Top Minnows, and Shiners is molluscan 
in character. 

Fishes feed freely on insects, not only 
on the aquatic forms in their various 
larval and mature stages, but also on 
terrestrial insects cast into the water in 
many ways. 

Crustaceans appear to be of even more 
importance as fish food, especially the 
minute Entomostraca. The Crayfishes 
are also eaten. 

The food of adult fishes naturally dif¬ 
fers greatly from that of the young. In 
addition to natural foods, both alive and 
dead, fishes in captivity will devour many 
kinds of meats and prepared foods. The 
question, then, as to what constitutes the 
food of fishes may be answered: almost 
any living animal forms from the water 
not too large to be swallowed. Therefore 
if the fish will not take the bait or the fly 
first offered, it may be tempted with an¬ 
other, and the resourceful angler need not 
return with an empty creel. 



90 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by Clifton Adams 

THE GREAT LAKES ARE RESERVOIRS OF FISH FOOD 


A Lake Michigan power fishing boat just in from the morning’s work with the nets, Charlevoix, 
Michigan. Lake trout fill its crates. The trout are sent to local packing plants, frozen in ice shavings 
and then placed in cold storage until sold. Mid-west cities out of reach of the seaboard are familiar with 
the fresh fish of the Great Lakes. 


Little can be learned definitely about 
the ages attained by fishes, unless indi¬ 
viduals are kept under observation in cap¬ 
tivity. 

AGE, GROWTH, AND HABITS OF FISHES 

The records of public and private 
aquariums, however, furnish data that we 
may consider reliable. The European Eel 
has undoubtedly lived for long periods in 
captivity. According to accepted authori¬ 
ties, a few specimens kept in aquariums 
have lived for periods varying from 20 
to 55 years. Boulenger, in the Cambridge 
Natural History, states that an Eel kept 
by the French naturalist Desmarest for 
“upwards of 40 years” reached a length 
of four and a half feet. 

It is recorded that four Russian Sterlets 
had lived in the private aquarium of Cap¬ 
tain Vipan in Northamptonshire for 25 
years. He also had a Golden Orfe still 
living after 24 years of captivity. A 
record from the Brighton Aquarium is 
that of a Sterlet which died after having 
been kept there “about 38 years.” 


The Australian Lung-fish is known to 
have lived at the London Zoological Gar¬ 
dens more than 19 years. 

There are accounts of European Trout 
said to have been kept in captivity for 53 
years, and of Carp still longer, but such 
are hardly comparable in verity with the 
records of existing public and private 
aquariums. 

The New York Aquarium still has 
specimens (1924) of the Mudfish or Bow- 
fin and the Long-nosed Gar which were 
received in 1903. There are also living 
Short-nosed Gars brought from the Mis¬ 
sissippi River in 1904. 

In the Aquarium certain North Ameri¬ 
can fishes have lived for long periods, 
viz.. Striped Bass, 20 years; Whitefish 
hatched in the building in 1913 are still 
living; Large-mouth Black Bass, 11 
years; Muskellunge, Calico Bass, Rock 
Bass, and Yellow Perch, 10 years. The 
last four were adults when received and 
are still living. 

A Striped Bass kept in captivity for 19 
years weighed 20 pounds and was three 




OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


91 



GOVERNMENT MESSENGERS PLANTING FISH 

Before transferring fish from cans to an open stream, it is necessary gradually to bring the water in 
the cans to the approximate temperature of that in the stream; otherwise the fish will experience a shock. 


feet long when it died. Its length when 
received was about six inches. This spe¬ 
cies sometimes attains a weight of 8o 
pounds or more. It is likely that some 
species grow faster in freedom, where they 
find their natural foods, but other kinds 
may develop faster in suitable ponds, 
where they are well cared for and pro¬ 
tected from enemies. 

TELLING THE AGE OF A FISH BY ITS 
SCALES 

Wild fishes of exceptionally large size 
being often found, we may assume that 
fishes continue to grow through life, the 
period of life depending largely upon 
enemies. In a world beset with sharp 
fangs and claws, the life of a wild animal, 
either in the water or on land, is apt to 
end in a tragedy. 

It is now known that the scales of fishes 


bear marks which indicate the length of 
life and the rate of growth in different 
years. Studies of the Atlantic Salmon 
in Scotland and of the various species 
of Pacific Salmon have proved 
this. 

The scale grows in proportion with the 
rest of the fish, principally by additions 
around its border. The fish grows at dif¬ 
ferent rates during different seasons of 
the year. Concentric ridges form around 
the edge of the scale, its marginal ex¬ 
pansion in summer being more rapid than 
in winter, so that the growth during each 
year is usually distinguishable. (See il¬ 
lustration, page 8o.) 

Studies of the five species of Pacific 
Salmons have shown the ages at which the 
different species return to the rivers to 
spawn. Thus, the ridges on a fish’s 
scales are comparable to the annual ring 






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OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


93 


growths revealed on a cross-section of a 
tree trunk, which tell its age. 

Studies of the scales of Whitefishes in 
the Great Lakes have shown that the 
scale characters are so well defined that 
they indicate the age of the individual 
fish and the rate of growth of the species. 

Scales from Whitefishes hatched and 
reared in the New York Aquarium and 
therefore of known age have been used by 
Government biologists in checking the 
results of studies of the scales of wild 
fishes. 

The sexes of fishes are not as readily 
distinguishable as in the case of birds. 
Males and females are usually so much 
alike that only the expert recognizes the 
differences, and in many species the dis¬ 
secting knife must be employed to deter¬ 
mine the sex. 

The colors of fishes vary somewhat ac¬ 
cording to the waters which they inhabit, 
and this applies also to fishes held in cap¬ 
tivity, where their colors tend to become 
more subdued. The fishes of exhibition 
tanks, however, brighten their colors dur¬ 
ing the spawning seasons, much as do 
wild fishes. 

The habits of fishes have not been stud¬ 
ied as thoroughly as have those of birds, 
mammals, and other vertebrated animals. 
Books on fishes are largely of two classes: 
those written by anglers, relating chiefly 
to methods employed in the capture of the 
fish, and those written by the systematic 
naturalist, dealing chiefly with classifica¬ 
tion and distribution. 

A BIG FIELD FOR SCIENCE 

In neither class of books is the life of 
the fish in its own environment very fully 
considered. There are, of course, satis¬ 
factory life histories of certain common 
species, especially those inhabiting the 
smaller streams, and fish-culturists are 
contributing new information on the ways 
of fishes reared in ponds. 

Since the keeping of fishes in aquariums 
became common, many important facts 
have been recorded, but observations on 
creatures in captivity can manifestly deal 
with but little of their real life. 

For many important facts relating to 
the senses of fishes we are indebted to the 
modern biological laboratory. Facts based 
on scientific experiment relative to fishes’ 
powers of hearing and memory, their 
color changes, sleep, electrical and poison¬ 


ous properties, the sounds they make, and 
so on, are slowly being made apparent. 

The naturalist who can devote himself 
to the observation of the ways of fishes 
will find a fascinating field and contribute 
new facts to science. 

SPOTTED CATFISH (Ictalurus punctatus), 
COMMON BULLHEAD (Ameiurus nebu- 
losus) and other Catfishes 
{For illustration see Color Plate, page iii) 

There are many kinds of Catfishes in the United 
States, all of which belong naturally to that part 
of the country lying to the east of the Rocky 
Mountains, those now abundant in some States 
west of the Rockies having been introduced. 

Catfishes are of considerable importance com¬ 
mercially. The fishery statistics of a few years ago 
show that the annual catch for market exceeded 
14,000,000 pounds, but to-day the supply is much 
smaller. 

Since they are easy to catch, the total of those 
taken everywhere with hook and line can only be 
conjectured, but it may possibly equal the quantity 
yielded by the net fisheries. 

As Catfishes in general have the h^bit of guarding 
their nests and protecting the young, the supply 
holds out well in spite of exhaustive fishing. Such 
habits also as feeding chiefly at night and feeding 
but little in winter contribute to their preservation. 

The Blue Catfish, inhabiting the Mississippi 
Valley, is the largest and best of all as a food-fish. 
It occasionally attains a weight of 125 pounds and 
8o-pound specimens are not uncommon, but like 
other fishes taken in large numbers, the average 
weight is only a few pounds. 

The Blue Catfish is less inclined to live in muddy 
waters than some other species, preferring the 
clearer and swifter streams. It is a clean feeder, 
living much on fifehes and Crayfish. As a game 
fish it is one of the best in the Catfish family, 
taking many kinds of baits, and is a strong fighter 
on the line, but never adds to the angler’s thrill by 
leaping from the water. 

The Blue Catfish is decidedly given to migratory 
movements according to seasonal changes in tem¬ 
perature, gathering in the more southerly parts of 
its range in winter. 

The Spotted Catfish {Ictalurus punctatus) belongs 
in the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes. 
It does not reach the size of the Blue Cat, seldom 
weighing as much as 25 pounds. Like the Blue 
Catfish, it is a trim and active fish. There are 
four species in this genus, all having forked tails. 

One of the best-known Catfishes is the Common 
Bullhead {Ameiurus nebulosus) inhabiting streams, 
lakes, and ponds of the Eastern and Middle States 
and distributed as far westward as the Dakotas 
and Texas. Another fish of this round-tailed genus 
is the Black Bullhead {Ameiurus melas), having 
much the same distribution. The Bullheads are 
easily raised in ponds, and under proper manage¬ 
ment yield a good supply of white and palatable 
fish food. All of our native Catfishes have tough, 
scaleless skins and small eyes, and all have eight 
barbels or feelers on upper and under sides of the 
mouth, which are useful in searching for food in 
the muddy waters that many of them inhabit. 

Catfishes make their nests usually in sheltered 



94 


RESCUING FISH FROM A MISSISSIPPI RIVER SWAMP 

On June i, 1915, this bayou covered ii acres, and on November 15, 1915, it had wasted away to a pool 35 feet by 50 feet and 14 inches deep in the deepest 
part. Some of the fishes had been seined out earlier in the season, but on the final clean-up 150,000 were rescued and removed to open water. They comprised more 
than ten species of food and game fishes, including 30,000 Catfish, 15,000 Crappie, 25,000 Sunfish, and 15,000 Buffalo-fish. 



OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


95 


spots, such as can be found under rocks, sub¬ 
merged ^ logs, and stumps, and do considerable 
excavating in enlarging them. They are spring¬ 
time spawners. The eggs hatch in a few days and 
the young stay with the parent fish until about an 
inch long. 

Catfishes in general are omnivorous, feeding on 
animal life, and are not averse to downright scaveng- 
They are very hardy and few fishes can live 
longer out of water. As they have dangerous 
spines on dorsal and pectoral fins, fishermen soon 
learn to handle them circumspectly. 

As kept in tanks, Catfishes become nearly dor¬ 
mant when the water turns cold. A 6o-pound Mis¬ 
sissippi Catfish {Leptops olivaris)^ which lived in 
captivity several years, took no food during the 
winter months and remained practically motionless. 

The name Channel Catfish is a term rather 
loosely applied by fishermen to several of the 
larger fishes of large streams. 

Fully a dozen of our numerous kinds of Cat¬ 
fishes are important as food. 

THE BLACK BASSES (Micropterus dolo- 
mieu and Micropterus salmoides) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page 112) 

The two closely related Black Basses are easily 
distinguished by the size of the mouth and by the 
color pattern. In the Small-mouth species the 
upper jaw does not extend beyond the eye, as in 
the case of the Large-mouth Bass; in the former 
there is much dark blotching, which tends to form 
short vertical cross-bands, while the latter has 
usually a dark band along the side. 

The expert angler thinks he can distinguish the 
species he has hooked before seeing it, as the Small- 
mouth Black Bass is by far the gamier and more 
active. Its reputation as a game fish is not sur¬ 
passed by any other of its size. 

Although the Black Basses are cultivated and 
distributed, both officially and by private effort, 
they are not fishes whose mature eggs can be 
stripped by hand and developed in hatchery build¬ 
ings by wholesale methods. Their propagation is 
effected by the more natural but slower method 
of pond culture, in which the fishes are provided 
with the conditions most favorable to their mating 
and the rearing of their young. 

The same limitations in culture apply to all 
fishes of the Bass-Sunfish family, which have the 
habit of making nests and protecting their young. 

The Small-mouth Bass is the fish that pond- 
owners find most satisfactory and they are justified 
in the selection. Much of its present wide dis¬ 
tribution is due to this fact. 

This truly American fish has been much written 
about and naturally has many names in its exten¬ 
sive range, but Small-mouth Black Bass is the 
most widely used as well as the most distinctive. 
It is found from Lake Champlain, through the 
Great Lakes to Manitoba, along the Atlantic slope 
to South Carolina, throughout the upper Mis¬ 
sissippi Valley, and in the lakes of southern Canada. 

The size of the Small-mouth Bass depends 
largely on the waters it inhabits. Fishes of four 
or five pounds are decidedly large. There are 
records of specimens still larger, but the angler of 
to-day in our overfished streams and lakes is well 
content with a two-pounder. 

I'he Black Basses defend their eggs on the 
spawning nests with great vigor and it is the male 


that assumes this task, the female deserting as 
soon as the eggs have been deposited. His care is 
continued for a few days after the young appear, 
when they begin to scatter. 

The Large-mouth Black Bass has a wider dis¬ 
tribution than the Small-mouth species, especially 
southward, extending into Florida and other States 
along the Gulf coast. It is in general more abun¬ 
dant and inhabits more sluggish waters. 

In the North the two species are commonly 
found together. The Large-mouth species is 
decidely larger and in Southern waters some¬ 
times exceeds 12 pounds in weight, but average 
weights are two or three pounds. 

This fish has even more names than its relative, 
but Large-mouth Bass serves to identify it wherever 
the two are found together. As a popular game fish, 
we are safe in placing it next to the Small-mouth 
Bass. 

The Black Basses are carnivorous fishes, the 
young feeding largely on insect life, the adults on 
fishes. Crayfish, and Frogs. In bait fishing these 
foods, together with the larger insects and their larvae, 
are all used. Expert anglers take both species 
successfully with trolling spoon and artificial fly. 

ROCK BASS (Ambloplites rupestris) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page Jij) 

Among the native fresh-water fishes living in 
the Aquarium there are few that adapt themselves 
more readily to the conditions of captivity than the 
Rock Bass. In a tank now containing fifteen 
specimens, mostly of large size, there have been no 
losses for several years. 

The natural range of this fish includes the Mis¬ 
sissippi Valley, the Great Lakes, and Lake Cham¬ 
plain drainages, but it has been introduced through 
fish-cultural operations into many States east of 
the Alleghenies. Its adaptability to pond cultiva¬ 
tion will ultimately extend its distribution. 

The methods of the expert angler are not at all 
necessary for the capture of the Rock Bass. Great 
numbers are taken by amateur fishers wherever it 
abounds and during the greater part of the year. 

In its feeding habits the Rock Bass is about as 
omnivorous as any member of the Bass-Sunfish 
family, to which it belongs. Crayfishes and other 
fresh-water crustaceans, aquatic insects and their 
larvae. Snails, and such fishes as its rather large 
mouth will admit, all contribute to its natural 
food supply. If we include the grasshoppers, 
crickets, grubs, earthworms, and other terrestrial 
baits used in catching it, the food list might be 
considerably extended. Fish-culturists have found 
that this species not infrequently cannibalizes to 
some extent on its own young. 

In addition to the baits already mentioned, the 
trolling spoon and other artificial lures are used 
successfully; but the Rock Bass has few of the 
fighting qualities of the Black Basses, for it soon 
yields to the pull of the line. 

The Rock Bass is a thick-bodied, meaty fish, and 
a couple of fair-sized ones will fill the pan. There 
are specimens in the Aquarium a foot long that 
have nearly trebled in size since their arrival, six 
years ago. It is known, however, to grow somewhat 
larger. 

At spawning time, late in May, the Rock Bass 
makes its nest in shallow water along shore, like 
Basses and Sunfishes generally. The fishes are 
sociable at this time and their nests are often found 


96 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by W. M. A. Cowan 


IN THE MATTER OF NUMBERS PERCH ARE THE HERRING OF FRESH WATER 

A string of perch from Schroon River, Chestertown, New York. The Yellow Perch comes near to 
being everybody’s fish. But little art is necessary to taking it. The Yellow Perch is ready to sample 
all baits of the amateur and even responds to bait let down through the ice in winter. 


in groups close together, which is not the habit with 
the pugnacious male Black Basses. 

CALICO BASS (Pomoxis sparoides) and 
CRAPPIE (Pomoxis annularis) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page up) 

The Calico Bass belongs naturally to the region 
including the Great Lakes and the Mississippi 
Valley. Being a good food-fish and well adapted 
to cultivation in ponds, its distribution has been 
considerably extended by artificial means. 

Like other widely distributed fishes, it has several 
names, one of which. Black Crappie, is sometimes 
used to distinguish it from its nearest relative, the 
Crappie or White Crappie. Both kinds are found 
in the above-named region, but, being of similar 
appearance, anglers do not always recognize the 
differences. 

The Calico Bass has a relatively deeper body, 
is darker than the Crappie, and weighs more as 
compared with a Crappie of the same length. 
Naturalists easily distinguish them by their dorsal 
spines, the Calico Bass having seven or eight, 
while the Crappie has five or six. 

d'he name Calico Bass is suggested by its mark¬ 
ings, the Crappie being always paler. Both kinds 
are found in Western markets. The annual market 
catch in the Mississippi Valley, of the two com¬ 
bined, sometimes exceeds 1,000,000 pounds. The 
Calico Bass is chiefly a feeder on aquatic insects 
and their larvae. It lives peaceably with other 
fishes when kept in ponds. So many are taken by 


anglers that it has been called “the fish for the 
millions.’’ 

If the Calico Basses which have lived in the 
Aquarium for 10 years continue to thrive in captivity 
it will be interesting to see what size they attain 
with increasing age. Exceptionally large specimens 
have been reported as exceeding two pounds in 
weight. 

WHITE PERCH (Morone americana) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page ir§) 

There are few native fishes that live equally 
well in fresh or salt waters. The White Perch, 
living chiefly in brackish tidal waters, ranges freely 
into both. In rivers it passes up beyond all trace 
of salinity and often becomes land-locked in strictly 
fresh ponds, where it breeds for considerable 
periods. On the other hand, it is taken in abun¬ 
dance about coastal islands where conditions are 
altogether those of the salt sea. 

In aquariums it has been kept for long periods 
in tanks, either fresh or salt, but the best results 
have been obtained in tanks supplied with both 
kinds of water. There are specimens now living in 
such artificially maintained brackish water that are 
10 years old. They have reached lengths of 10 to 
12 inches and continue to be hardy under the 
restrictions and the monotonous fare of life in 
captivity. 

Years ago specimens of live White Perch in¬ 
tended for exhibition were obtained from one of 
the park lakes in New York City where they had 
















OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


97 



Photograph by S. N. Leek 


A NATIVE SON AND NATIVE TROUT: WYOMING 

The Trout shown here are doubtless one of the numerous species of the 
Rocky Mountain region, known as Black-spotted or “Cutthroat”—probably 
the Yellowstone Trout {Salmo lewisi) inhabiting the Snake River basin 
above Shoshone Falls. 


been introduced; but, al¬ 
though fully protected, the 
supply gradually diminish¬ 
ed to the vanishing point. It 
would seem, therefore, that 
the race cannot breed In¬ 
definitely in fresh waters, 
but must renew its fertility 
through occasional baths in 
the vitalizing sea. 

Complete exclusion from 
the brackish or fresh waters, 
where it spawns, would 
doubtless lead to extermi¬ 
nation as readily as long- 
continued imprisonment in 
absolutely fresh water. Ac¬ 
cording to the records of 
anglers, the largest speci¬ 
mens are those taken in 
salt or brackish waters. 

The White Perch belongs 
to the tidal region of the 
Atlantic coast from Nova 
Scotia to South Carolina. 

It is abundant around Long 
Island and in the Hudson 
River up as far as Albany. 

It is taken through the 
ice in the Hudson, where 
it is present throughout the 
year. 

It is equally abundant in 
the Delaware and Susque¬ 
hanna rivers and Chesa¬ 
peake Bay, ranging well up¬ 
stream, and is commonly 
taken in pound and fyke 
nets along the coast. 

In North Carolina the 
annual catch amounts to 
1,000,000 pounds. Anglers 
catch it in abundance and 
net fishermen keep the 
markets well supplied with 
it. Fishery statistics show 
that the market catch along 
the Middle Atlantic States 
sometimes amounts to 
2,000,000 pounds a year. 

The White Perch is good 
eating, either from fresh or 
salt water. Hook-and-line 
fishers find Shrimp bait the best, but it responds 
readily to Minnows, young Eels, small Crabs, or 
any of its natural foods. Specimens of two or three 
pounds are reported from the eastern end of Long 
Island. In fresh waters, worms, grasshoppers, and 
other insects are effectively used. 

The White Perch rises to the fly, especially in 
fresh waters, and resists bravely when hooked. A 
fish a foot long weighs about two pounds, but this 
is larger than the average. 

It is a gregarious species, usually frequenting the 
shallower waters along shore. Spawning begins 
soon after the ice leaves and lasts a couple of months. 
Females have been taken with eggs as late as June lo. 
Fish-cultural experiments have shown that the 
eggs can be hatched artificially in from three to 
five days. 

Considering the adaptability of the White Perch 
to the conditions of captivity, especially in brackish 


water, there is reason to suppose that it will receive 
more attention from fish-culturists than it has in 
the past. Anglers would know it better if its range 
extended farther inland. 

BROOK TROUT (Salvelinus fontinalis) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page ii 6 ) 

The Brook Trout Is the favorite game fish of 
America. Originally found from Labrador west¬ 
ward to the Saskatchewan and southward along 
the Alleghenies to Georgia, it has been carried by 
fish-culturists to the Rockies, the Sierras, the upper 
Mississippi Valley, and wherever rapid streams of 
suitable temperature are found. 

It has almost disappeared from lowland streams 
in the North, which have become unsulted to it as a 
result of deforestation and water pollution. 



98 


Photograph by E. R. Sanborn, New York Zoological Society 

BROOK TROUT, BEST BELOVED OF MANY LIGHT-ROD FLY-FISHERMEN 
This fish thrives in cold torrents which grosser fishes do not enter. No part of our outdoor heritage is more worthy of conservation than the rapid Trout waters of 










OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


99 


The Brook Trout persists in small coastal streams 
where the conditions favorable to it have not been 
disturbed, and it often descends to brackish water. 
It will live in streams having a summer temperature 
as high as 70 degrees, provided they have swift 
currents. 

The Brook Trout cannot live through the sum¬ 
mer in the New York Aquarium without the aid 
of refrigerated water, although the city supply is 
derived in part from the Catskill Mountains and 
flows 100 miles underground. The Brook Trout 
will live in cool lakes and ponds, but cannot re¬ 
produce in such situations without access to the 
gravelly beds of running brooks at spawning time. 

Trout culture in America dates back to the 
early fifties. Fish-culturists raise great numbers 
of Brook Trout, both for market and for distribu¬ 
tion in small artificial ponds, by feeding the fishes 
and caring for the eggs in hatchery troughs provided 
with flowing spring water. 

The instinct to move upstream is very strong in 
young Trout; when a miniature “fishway” with its 
stairs of tiny box pools is connected with a hatching 
trough, they will promptly begin to ascend and 
cannot, in fact, be kept down while water is allowed 
to flow through it. 

The Brook Trout spawns in the fall, when streams 
begin to cool, but the eggs do not hatch out until 
springtime brings higher temperature. The hatch¬ 
ing period lasts from three to six months, according 
to latitude and altitude. The Brook Trout spawns 
when two years old. Larger and older fishes deposit 
from 500 to 2,000 eggs. 

In lakes w’here there is an abundant food supply, 
the Brook Trout has in the past been known to 
reach the rare weight of 10 pounds; but to-day, 
when thousands of anglers are whipping the Trout 
streams, a one-pound Trout is a large one. Many 
good Trout waters have been ruined by the ill- 
advised introduction of predatory fishes. 

The coloration of the Brook Trout is extremely 
variable. In some waters the fish may exhibit ad 
the brilliancy of which it is capable, while in another 
watershed not far away it is so dark that but little 
color is discernible. 

A notable illustration of this is found on Long 
Island, the Trout on the south side of the island 
being among the showiest of the species, while 
those of the north side are as dark as the Brook 
Trout ever becomes, although the supply on both 
sides is maintained by hatchery-raised fishes. After 
a few months in captivity, the bright colors of the 
former tend to disappear, while the latter become 
somewhat paler. This may be due largely to a 
change in diet and the exclusion of direct sunlight 
from the tanks. 

In the Trout, as in many other fishes, the colors 
vary with age. 

In streams the Brook Trout is largely a- feeder 
on aquatic insects, while in lakes and ponds it 
feeds much on small fishes. In the Aquarium it 
subsists cheerfully on chopped fish, like the other 
captives of the tank, and in the average hatchery 
pond becomes a fat liver-fed gourmand. 

The Brook Trout is not a leaping fish, like the 
Bass, when hooked, although it may rise clear of 
the surface in striking the fly. 

We need not describe methods of capturing the 
Trout; anglers have been writing of this in great 
detail since the days of the Father of Anglers. No 
native game fish is more worthy of protection in 
the waters still suited to it than the Brook Trout. 


LAKE TROUT (Cristivomer namaycush) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ page iiy) 

The Lake Trout of the Great Lakes belongs 
chiefly to the fish trade. In these inland seas the 
angler’s share is small in comparison. It is the 
largest of all Trouts and is known to have reached 
a weight of 100 pounds. The average of those 
taken in the gill nets used at the present time 
weighs less than 10 pounds, while those caught by 
anglers along shore average but half that weight. 
The writer once accompanied a northern Alaska 
expedition, a member of which brought into camp 
specimens of this Trout exceeding three and a 
half feet in length. They were taken in a large 
lake at the headwaters of the Kowak River, above 
the Arctic Circle, where they were very abundant. 

Among our fresh-water fishes the Lake Trout 
ranks next to the Whitefish in commercial im¬ 
portance. It is found throughout the Great Lakes 
and from there northward, in all the large lakes of 
British America and Alaska. 

A deep-water form of this Trout, called Siscowet, 
is taken in great numbers in Lake Superior, the 
gill nets being set at times in depths exceeding ^00 
feet and lifted by steam power. The writer once 
made a cruise north of the Apostle Islands on a 
steam fishing boat operating 40 nets, each 600 feet 
long. These were set in one “gang,” constituting 
a single net more than four miles in length. 

Each deep-water fishing boat attends to four or 
five of these great nets. As the net is lifted by the 
windlass forward, it is carried aft in sections, put 
together again, and paid out over the stern. The 
nets were about eight feet wide, with four and a 
half inch mesh. 

The largest of the deep-water Lake Trout taken 
by our vessel was two feet ten inches long and 
weighed 21 pounds. 

It would be interesting to know the greatest 
depth at which Lake Trout have been taken, as 
Lake Superior, one of the deepest lakes in the 
world, has depths exceeding 1,000 feet and its 
bottom is far below sea-level. 

Some time later a day was spent on a steam 
fishing boat in the Georgian Bay near its connec¬ 
tion with Lake Huron, and the lifting of a gill net 
six miles in length was observed. It was set at a 
depth of 100 feet and the work of lifting and reset¬ 
ting occupied five hours. The catch was nearly 
1,000 pounds of Lake Trout, the largest of which 
was three feet long and weighed 15 pounds. 

There are many steam vessels in the Great 
Lakes engaged in such wholesale fishing, as long 
as the Lakes are free from ice. The annual net 
catch of Lake Trout in the Great Lakes in 1917 
exceeded 13,000,000 pounds. 

The writer has taken Lake Trout in the Georgian 
Bay at depths of about 50 feet with hand line and 
trolling spoon, but the sport would have been 
better had rod and reel been used. Anglers who 
have used the rod with 300 feet of line and Minnow 
bait find that the fish can be played in a satisfactory 
manner. 

Surface trolling, when the Trout are found in 
shallower waters, affords better sport. In smaller 
and shallower lakes, like those of Maine, where 
summer water temperatures are higher than in the 
Great Lakes, the Lake Trout is often taken with 
the fly. In Seneca Lake, in New York State, it 
is taken with a special trolling rig, designed to 
play the spoon 10 or 20 feet under the surface. 


100 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 


The Lake Trout is easily distinguished from 
other Trouts by the numerous small, pale-yellowish 
spots which cover its body from head to tail. It 
is a voracious fish. Forbes tells of a 2o-pound 
Lake Trout which had 13 good-sized Lake Herring 
in its stomach. 

Lake Trout fry are turned out by the fish hatch¬ 
eries in great numbers. The spawning season 
varies in different lakes. Five or six thousand eggs 
are stripped from fishes of ordinary size, but large 
specimens yield many more. The eggs hatch in 
from two to three months. 

'Fhe Lake Trout endures captivity very well; 
the Aquarium has 20-inch specimens received in 
1919, some of them perfect albinos with bright pink 
eyes. 

Several names are applied to the Lake Trout, 
one of which is Mackinaw Trout. In the lakes of 
Maine it is called I'ogue, while in Canadian lakes 
it goes by the Indian name Namaycush. 

McCLOUD RIVER RAINBOW TROUT 
(Salmo irideus shasta) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ page 118) 

The Rainbow Trout belongs to the Pacific slope 
of the Sierras and Cascades; wherever it is found to 
the eastward of these ranges it is an importation. 

There are several geographic races of this Trout, 
the one now found in Eastern streams and lakes 
being the northern California variety, Salmo irideus 
shasta. Commencing in the early eighties, the 
original stock was widely distributed from the 
Government hatchery on McCloud River south of 
Mount Shasta. It was the writer’s good fortune 
to be attached to this station years ago and to 
participate in its work. 

The acclimatization of this fish in other parts of 
the United States and in foreign countries is one 
of the notable successes of modern* fish culture. 
Taken to New Zealand in the late eighties, it soon 
became well established there. 

The introduction of the Rainbow Trout in East¬ 
ern States provided a substitute for the Brook 
IVout in many waters which had become unsuitable 
for that species, as a result of advancing civilization. 

While generally not as large in the East as in 
its native Sierra streams, it has in certain favorable 
localites been found even larger. It can endure 
warmer water than the Brook Trout and live 
farther downstream than that species. In streams 
near the sea it often lingers in brackish water. 

While the Rainbow Trout is a springtime spawner 
on the Pacific slope, depositing its eggs from 
February to May, it has in its Eastern habitat 
adapted itself to the very different climatic condi¬ 
tions prevailing there and now spawns in the fall 
and early winter, like the Brook Trout, but the 
eggs hatch in less time. 

The vitality of the artificially fertilized eggs has 
made it possible to ship them to great distances in 
a half-incubated condition, after which the hatching 
process can be completed by ordinary fish-hatchery 
methods. In this way fertilized eggs of the Rainbow 
Trout have been sent to the Atlantic coast, to 
Europe, and even to New Zealand in refrigerated 
packages with but little loss. 

'I'his is the method now used in distributing not 
only Trouts and Salmons, but many other kinds of 
fishes. 

Eastern anglers do not usually rate the Rainbow 
with the Brook Trout as a game fish, but we can¬ 


not believe that this criticism applies in its native 
rivers. It is, perhaps, true that it is there a better 
food fish. Anglers have their own ideas on such 
matters, and are not to be dissuaded from opinions 
formed in places where they have enjoyed good 
sport. 

In the McCloud River we have taken three- and 
four-pound specimens, but the average is smaller. 
It is known to attain a weight of 10 pounds, especially 
when transplanted to warmer waters, or where the 
food supply and the large area of a lake provide 
contlitions favoring greater growth. 

It is probably not so gamy a fish in warm waters 
as in mountain streams. We have seen it leap 
repeatedly when hooked—a thing the Brook Trout 
seldom does. 

The Rainbow is a fine sportsman’s fish, taking 
the fly much like other Trouts, and is not a com¬ 
petitor of the Brook Trout in maintaining a place 
in the wider habitat now afforded it. 

In some localities the identity of the Rainbow 
is confused with that of the Steelhead {Salmo 
gairdneri)^ also a Pacific coast fish, which has been 
successfully acclimatized in streams flowing into 
Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and elsewhere. It 
has smaller scales than the Steelhead. In California 
the Rainbow is not inclined to seek the sea like 
the Steelhead, while the latter ranges far inland 
at spawning time, like the Salmon. A few Steel- 
heads have been taken in the McCloud River 300 
miles from salt water, and it is not unlikely that 
some of the Steelhead eggs were unwittingly 
shipped from there with eggs of the Rainbow. 

With its broad, iridescent, purplish-red band 
along the side, the Rainbow Trout is well named. 

EASTERN PICKEREL (Esox reticulatus) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page iig) 

The Eastern Pickerel—the largest of our three 
species—belongs chiefly to the region east of the 
Alleghenies, from Maine to Florida. It reaches a 
length of two feet and a weight of seven or eight 
pounds. Two or three pounds would be near the 
average size, which varies, however, with the 
locality. 

Chain Pickerel is a name much used in the 
North, while Jack is more common in the South. 
It is often confused with the Pike in waters where 
both are found. 

Like others of the family, it leads a solitary 
life, except at spawning time. Pickerels captured 
by bait trolling in New Jersey lakes have been 
taken in rather shallow places, where they found 
shelter among water plants. Here also the Pickerel 
deposits its spawn. The eggs are thrown off in 
long masses like those of Perch and are usually 
seen among submerged brush and weeds. In the 
North it spawns in April and May; in the South it 
spawns earlier and grows faster. 

The Pickerel stays in deeper water in winter and 
is then taken through holes cut in the ice. 

It is said that in ponds devoted to fish culture a 
Pickerel five years old may be a foot and a half 
long and weigh two pounds, but rapidity of growth 
depends upon the abundance of food. 

The Pickerel will seize a fish half as large as itself 
and swallow it by degrees. 

All fishes of the Pike-Pickerel family are taken by 
similar methods. Fishes and Frogs are good live 
baits and are used in trolling, casting, and skittering 
and artificial lures are used in the same ways. 


OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


101 



THE AMATEUR FISHERMAN’S DELIGHT: ROCK BASS 

Whatever it may lack in reputation among scientific fishers, this species is one of the most popular 
among average anglers. From the St. Lawrence to Texas, the legion of the unskilled easily transfer it 
from its rocky haunts to the frying-pan. 


“Skittering” is an angler’s term; it is done with 
a long rod and a short line, by jerking the bait 
along the surface. 

The Eastern Pickerel is probably a better game 
fish than either of the other Pickerels. These 
fishes, being rather easily caught, both in summer 
and winter, soon become reduced in numbers in the 
smaller water areas. 

Another species, the Banded Pickerel {Esox 
americarnis), also limited to the region east of the 
Alleghenies, is smaller than the Eastern Pickerel, 
seldom exceeding a foot in length. It inhabits 
chiefly lowland streams and swamps, often descend¬ 
ing streams to brackish water. 

The Little Pickerel {Esox vermiculatus) has a 
shorter body and longer head than its relatives. 
It is a fish of quiet waters and does not exceed a 
foot in length. It belongs to the Ohio and Mis¬ 
sissippi Valleys and to streams flowing into the 
(ireat Lakes. 

PIKE (Esox lucius) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ page up) 

The Pike reaches but half the size attained by 
the Muskellunge. It has much the same distribu¬ 
tion but a greater range northward. The writer 
has taken it above the Arctic Circle in Alaska. 

The American Pike is probably not distinct from 
the Pike of the Old World, but the latter is believed 
to be larger. Being more widely distributed and 
abundant^than the Muskellunge, it is better known 
to anglers and is of more economic importance. 

The Pike, like the others of its family, is one 


of the notoriously voracious fishes, destroying 
great numbers of other fishes and many water 
birds and small aquatic mammals. It is well 
equipped for the predatory life and is believed 
to eat about a fifth of its own weight daily. There 
is no doubt about its being the enemy of all fishes 
inhabiting the shallower waters. Only a few Pike 
can find subsistence in ponds and lakes of limited 
extent. 

It is not a suitable fish for propagation in waters 
adapted to other fishes that are less piscivorous, 
and its cultivation should be restricted to such 
localities as are best adapted to it alone, and where 
it may subsist on fishes of the least value as game 
or food. 

The Pike reaches a length of four teet and a 
weight of 40 pounds or more. There are several 
much-quoted records to the effect that the Pike of 
Europe and Siberia have been known to exceed 
ICO pounds in weight. Natives of the Alaska 
Peninsula told me repeatedly that Pike of enormous 
size inhabit Lake Iliamna. 

It may be that the Pike attains its greatest 
size in far northern waters. In northern Alaska 
we found it abundant in all parts of the Kowak 
and its tributaries, especially in quiet lagoons lead¬ 
ing off from the river. There were many lurking 
in shallow water among overflowed mosses, where 
we continually startled them in walking along 
shore. 

Having little time for angling, we took such 
Pike as were needed for food by shooting them 
as they lav in the shallows with hardly enough 
water to cover them. I his was early in August 



102 


Photograph by E. R. Sanborn, New York Zoological Society 

THE CALICO BASS DERIVES ITS NAME FROxM ITS MARKINGS 

This fish is neither large nor noted for gameness, but it is the object of a vast amount of angling over a considerable part of the country. Market fishers take large 

numbers in the Mississippi Valley. 









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104 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by E. R. Sanborn, New York Zoological Society 

TEN-YEAR-OLD WHITEFISH 

These specimens were hatched in the New York Aquarium. Being the only Whitefishes of known age 
available, scales from them are used by biologists in checking the results of studies of the ages of wild 
Whitefishes. 


when the cold Arctic streams are about as warm as 
they ever get, and the Pikes were probably spawn¬ 
ing. In our Northern States they spawn soon after 
the ice leaves, and the eggs hatch in about three 
weeks. 

The annual yield of Pike and Pickerel in the net 
fisheries of the Great Lakes exceeds 2,000,000 
pounds. The identity of the Pike is often lost in 
the name Pickerel, with which it is associated in 
much of its geographic range. 

An inhabitant of the shallower waters in summer, 
the Pike in winter seeks greater depths, doubtless 
following its food supply, and is taken on baited 
hooks set through the ice. In summer it is a 
solitary still hunter, lurking about the edges of 
weedy or brushy places. It is taken with all sorts 
of live and artificial baits, in trolling, casting, and 
skittering. 

Many anglers consider Pike and Pickerel fishing 
a high form of sport and value them also as food- 
fishes, but there are others who think differently. 
We have enjoyed them both on the line and in the 
pan. 

LAKE STURGEON 
(Acipenser rubicundus) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ ^20) 

The Lake Sturgeon is the largest fish of the 
Great Lakes and, next to the Paddle-fish and the 
Giant Gar of the Mississippi River, our largest 
fresh-water fish. It never reaches the great size 
of the Sea Sturgeons ascending rivers of the Atlantic 
and Pacific coasts. Milner, who examined many in 


the early seventies, saw none longer than six feet, 
but found reports around the Lakes of larger 
Sturgeons. In 1922 a Sturgeon was taken in Lake 
Huron which measured seven feet three inches and 
weighed 225 pounds. 

The history of the Sturgeon is a story of wanton 
waste. In 1872 Milner reported a fishing firm at 
Sandusky, Ohio, engaged in preparing smoked 
Sturgeon and caviar, which used from 10,000 to 
18,000 Sturgeons a year. Before this firm began 
to utilize them the local catch of Sturgeons, which 
were always present in the nets, was destroyed as 
useless. This was also the practice elsewhere on 
the Lakes. 

When the value of the fish was finally recognized, 
its decimation proceeded so rapidly that it soon 
became scarce and has been so ever since. 

The difficulties encountered in the propagation 
of the Sturgeon by artificial methods have so far 
been only partially overcome. The breeding sizes 
available for experimental fish-culture are now so 
limited that extermination is feared. 

In 1880 the catch of Sturgeons in the Great 
Lakes exceeded 7,000,000 pounds. In 1917 it had 
fiillen to less than 100,000. In the upper Mis¬ 
sissippi River and its tributaries the catch has 
fallen in proportion. 

The Sea Sturgeons have also decreased at a 
rapid rate and fish-culture has made little prog¬ 
ress in propagating any of them. 

When we consider that the caviar alone 
from a single large female Atlantic Sturgeon is 
worth nearly |ioo, It is easy to realize what the 
passing of this fish means. Such is the rate at 



OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


105 



which we are harvesting 
our wild crops. 

d'he Lake Sturgeon in¬ 
habits also the large interior 
lakes of British America, 
but statistics on the yield 
from those waters are not at 
hand. The small Shovel- 
nose Sturgeon of the Mis¬ 
sissippi River, belonging to 
a different genus, Is of much 
less value commercially. 

The Lake Sturgeon is in¬ 
offensive as far as other fishes 
are concerned, except as it 
may disturb their eggs, be¬ 
ing strictly a bottom feeder 
and living on mollusks, 
crustaceans, worms, and 
more or less small plant life. 

Its mouth, devoid of teeth 
and placed on the under 
surface ot the head, is sucker¬ 
like in form and can be 
protruded downward like 
those of Suckers. The 
heavy snout is used for 
stirring up the bottom. 

Sturgeons have lived only 
two or three years in the 
Aquarium, but doubtless 
would live longer in cap¬ 
tivity were it practicable to 
keep them in mud-bottomed 
pools and supplied with their 
natural foods. Unfortu¬ 
nately, aquatic animals 
confined under the con¬ 
ditions now practiced are 
compelled to subsist, es¬ 
pecially in winter, on such 
foods as the markets afford. 

'rhe Sturgeons are fishes 
of ancient lineage, the spe¬ 
cies having been more nu¬ 
merous in former ages, when 
they were more heavily ar¬ 
mored with bony scales 
than are those now exist¬ 
ing. All Sturgeons are at 
once distinguishable by 
their five longitudinal rows of heavy, bony scales. 

I'he Sturgeon is an active fish, often leaping clear 
out of the water. It lives chiefly in the shallower 
waters along shore, where It spawns in June. 

MUSKELLUNGE (Esox masquinongy) 

{For illustration see Color Plate^ page 121) 

There are so many ways of spelling the Indian 
name of this fish that we have adopted the one 
apparently most in use, only after an orthographical 
search which revealed 24 ways of spelling it. The 
Muskellunge is the largest of the Pike family, 
being known to exceed 80 pounds in weight, while 
40-pound specimens are fairly common. 

It is a northern fish, inhabiting mainly the Great 
Lakes, Lake Champlain, Lake Chautauqua, lakes 
of Canada, the St. Lawrence River, and the upper 
Mississippi and tributaries. 

It is celebrated as a game fish, having both size 
and strength. Unless equipped with a rod suitable 


Photograph by T. J. Golden 

A LAKE CHAUTAUQUA MUSKELLUNGE 

This specimen, which was 52^^ inches long, with a girth of 24^^ inches, 
weighed 42 pounds. 

for a large specimen, the angler may have to play 
the fish an hour before landing it. 

Live bait casting and spoon trolling are the usual 
ways of taking the Muskellunge. 

As a fish-eater the Muskellunge rivals the Bar¬ 
racuda of salt water, making the same fierce rushes 
and having a similarly large mouth set with danger¬ 
ous teeth. There is, in fact, a superficial resem¬ 
blance between these two widely separated fishes. 

With a long, narrow body, strong dorsal and 
anal fins placed far back on the body, and a power¬ 
ful tail, the Muskellunge is well equipped for 
speed. It has the look of a three-propeller craft, 
but the power is reserved for sudden bursts of 
speed, as it is not given to ranging far from its 
customary lair. The Muskellunge, like other fishes 
of the Pike family, is solitary in habit, lurking in 
sheltered spots, whence it darts upon Its prey. 

As food-fishes, neither the Muskellunge nor the 
other Pikes are usually rated as high as the Trouts 
and Basses. 






106 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by E. R. Sanborn, New York Zoological Society 

GAR, A SURVIVAL OF EARLY FISH FORMS 

The cylindrical body, long bony snout, and certain reptilian characteristics point to the Gar being a 
surviving link with the ages. One species, the alligator gar, inhabiting our southern streams is said to 
reach a length of 20 feet. 


The Muskellunge with which we are best ac¬ 
quainted is the species belonging to Lake Chau¬ 
tauqua and the upper Ohio River system— Esox 
ohiensis. This species has long been on exhibition 
in the Aquarium, where 30-pound specimens have 
lived four or five years at a time and would have 
lived longer but for accidents to the water supply. 
Although well fed, they have occasionally attacked 
their large tank mates, inflicting serious injuries. 
It is sometimes called Barred Muskellunge. Mr. 
G. A. Winchester states that the largest specimen 
taken in Lake Chautauqua weighed 49 pounds 
Forty-pounders are taken every season, but seven 
pounds is about the average for that lake. A 
42-pound specimen was taken in Lake Chau¬ 
tauqua which had a length of 52^ inches (see page 
105). In this lake it is taken in summer by spoon 
trolling. In the autumn live baits—Suckers, 
Shiners, and Creek Chubs—are used. 

Live-bait fishing is more effective at night and 
attracts larger fish. Skittering with dead Min¬ 
nows is fairly successful in summer and both casting 
and skittering can be done over weedy areas. A 
good day’s catch would be five or six fish. The State 
hatcheryatLake Chautauqua, between 1896 and 1920, 
turned out more than 69,000,000 Muskellunge fry. 

The spawning season begins about April 20 and 
lasts three weeks. The Muskellunge spawns from 
100,000 to 300,000 eggs, which are deposited mostly 
where brush, dead limbs, and logs lie in the water. 

Another species of Muskellunge (Esox immac- 
ulatus) inhabits lakes in northern Wisconsin and 
Minnesota. 


The members of the Pike family are readily 
distinguished by the scales on cheeks and gill 
covers. In the Muskellunge the cheek and lower 
half of gill cover are without scales; in the Pike 
the cheek is entirely scaled, the lower half of the 
gill cover being without scales; in the Pickerels 
cheek and gill cover are both fully scaled. 

COMMON WHITEFISH (Coregonus 
clupeiformis) 

(For illustration see Color Plate^ 122) 

One of the most abundant and important food- 
fishes of the North is the Common Whitefish, 
which inhabits the Great Lakes and some other 
large lakes of the United States and British 
America. 

I'here are several species of the genus, mostly 
of restricted range, inhabiting lakes in the North¬ 
west as far as Alaska, but the Common Whitefish 
and the Menominee Whitefish (Coregonus quadri- 
lateralis)^ also abundant in the Great Lakes, far 
exceed the others in commercial value. 

The Common Whitefish is in the main the species 
on which the “Whitefish” industry is based. The 
catch in 1919 exceeded 6,000,000 pounds, or about 
half the quantity taken in 1890, so heavy is the 
drain made upon this food resource. The White- 
fish catch along the Canadian shores of the Lakes 
being equal to that of the United States, we may 
double the above figures. 

The Whitefish fortunately responds readily to 
artificial methods of propagation, and there are 




OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


107 



A PACK-TRAIN OF HORSES LADEN WITH CANS OF YOUNG TROUT FOR PLANTING 

IN A COLORADO LAKE 


several hatcheries along the Great Lakes devoted 
to its increase. It is doubtless the favorite food- 
fish derived from inland waters. Planked White- 
fish is considered as great a delicacy in the Lake 
regions as planked Shad around the shores of the 
Chesapeake. 

The largest part of the catch is made in Lake 
Michigan and the least part in Lake Ontario. 
The gill net is the principal apparatus used in 
capture, but many are taken in pound nets and 
seines. The Whitefish is seldom taken with the 
hook, and then only with worm or insect bait. 

It inhabits chiefly the deeper parts of the Lakes, 
moving into shallower waters early in summer, in 
midsummer seeking again the cooler depths. In 
the fall months Whitefish again come inshore to 
spawn, some of them entering streams for that 
purpose, but the migratory movements vary some¬ 
what in the different Lakes. 

Recent investigations have shown that the Com¬ 
mon Whitefish is late in maturing, probably not 
spawning until after fiv’e years of age. It deposits 
on the average about 35,000 eggs, which hatch in 
about five months. 

The food of the Whitefish consists of small 
crustaceans, small mollusks, and insect larvae, but 
chiefly of various kinds of Entomostraca. White- 
fish hatched in the Aquarium were carried through 
the critical period of infancy on a diet consisting 
of the larvae of mosquitoes. 

These fishes, now ten years old, have lived and 
grown on a diet of chopped fresh meat. Had it 


been possible to supply them with their natural 
live foods, their size would doubtless have been 
greater. These specimens are apparently the only 
Whitefishes ever brought to maturity in captivity. 

Whitefish eggs and young Whitefish are de¬ 
voured in great numbers by predatory fishes. 

The largest Whitefishes seldom reach a weight 
of 20 pounds, and such are rare, the average as 
brought to market being only three or four pounds. 
Females are larger than males. 

The Whitefishes as a group are considered the 
most important fresh-water fishes in the world, 
and there can be no doubt of the fact that they 
are undergoing progressive depletion. 

FRESH-WATER DRUM (Aplodinotus 
grunniens) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page I2j) 

The Fresh-water Drum is a large fish belonging 
chiefly to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi 
Valley. It reaches a length of three or four feet 
and a weight of 40 or 50 pounds. It is a food-fish, 
wherever taken, and more popular in the South 
than in the North. 

In 1899 the catch of Drum in the Mississippi 
and its tributaries exceeded 3,000,000 pounds; in 
the Great Lakes in 1917 the catch amounted to 
nearly as much. 

The Drum is a bottom fish, living mostly in 
muddy waters, feeding on Snails, Mussels, and 
Crayfish, for which its heavy paved teeth are well 





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OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 


109 


adapted, and it is not given to the eating of other 
fishes. 

It is not a popular angler’s fish, but is often 
taken with Crayfish bait, and the young are better 
eating than the adults. The net fisheries take the 
bulk of those marketed. In the North it is often 
called Sheepshead, while in Louisiana it is best 
known as Gaspergou. 

The Fresh-water Drum makes drumming or 
grunting sounds not unlike those made by the 
Sea Drum, and this is the meaning of its specific 
name, grunniens. 

The noises made by Drums, Croakers, and other 
sound-producing fishes are accomplished by muscles 
drawn across the air bladder, by the grinding of 
their blunt teeth, and in other ways, fishes having 
no real vocal organs. 

The ivorylike ear bones, or otoliths, of this fish 
are popularly known as “lucky-stones,” a fancy 
originating in a marking resembling the letter L. 

The Fresh-water Drum has proved to be a hardy 
fish in the tanks of aquariums, where it gets little 
of its natural food. 

YELLOW PERCH (Perea flavescens) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page 12^ 

The Yellow Perch is one of our best-known 
fresh-water fishes, being abundant throughout the 
Northern and Eastern States, especially in lakes 
and ponds. On the Atlantic slope it extends some¬ 
what farther south than in the Mississippi Valley, 
where it is confined to States bordering on the 
Great Lakes. 

In the North it extends from Nova Scotia and 
Quebec westward to Minnesota. 

The market catch by nets in the Great Lakes 
sometimes exceeds 9,000,000 pounds a year, while 
anglers in towns along the Lakes take great numbers 
and find sport in doing so. The catch by anglers 
in smaller lakes and ponds everywhere is very 
large. 

The Yellow Perch comes as near to being every¬ 
body’s fish as any other and but little art is necessary 
in taking it. It is ready to sample all the baits of 
the amateur and even responds to baits let down 
through the ice in winter, when many other fishes 
are sluggish. The expert takes it both with artificial 
fly and trolling spoon. 

As a food-fish, there is none of better flavor 
among the commoner kinds. It is easily identified 
by its broad cross-bands of black, as no other 
native fresh-water fish wears the same combination 
of black and gold. 

Like other fishes of extended range, it has several 
names, viz., Yellow Perch, Ringed Perch, Raccoon 
Perch, Red Perch or Striped Perch, according to 
locality. Its length may be as much as 14 inches 
and its weight about three pounds, but such sizes 
are unusual. 

The Yellow Perch is one of the easiest fishes to 
introduce into new waters. The eggs are extruded 
in zigzag-shaped bands, which, by the rapid absorp¬ 
tion of water, became large masses, seen along the 
shores in shallow water. Employees of the 
Aquarium gather such masses in the ponds of Long 
Island in March and April. They are hatched 
indoors as a springtime fish-cultural exhibit, the 
young fry being placed in local streams and 
ponds. 

The egg masses may be found at any time after 
the ice disappears, according to the latitude. 


Yellow Perch have been kept ii years in cap¬ 
tivity on no other food than fish purchased in the 
markets, although its natural live foods include 
practically all the smaller forms of fresh-water 
life. 

The Yellow Perch runs in schools and frequents 
moderate depths. It is a difficult fish to dress 
because the scales cling so tightly to the flesh. 

PIKE-PERCH (Stizostedion vitreum) and 
SAUGER (Stizostedion canadense) 

(For illustration see Color Plate, page 12^) 

The Pike-perch, perhaps better known as Wall¬ 
eyed Pike, ranks next to the Whitefishes and the 
Lake Trout in quality and commercial importance 
among the fishes of the Great Lakes, where the 
market catch in 1917 amounted to 4,500,000 
pounds. 

While the average weight of this fish in the 
Great Lakes is less than 10 pounds, it occasionally 
reaches a weight of 25 pounds and a length of 
three feet. In other northern waters the average 
is less than five pounds. The young are usually 
known as Blue Pike. 

Although the Pike-perch inhabits clear waters 
everywhere in its range, it is a fish of the lakes 
rather than the rivers. It is found from Lake 
Champlain westward to Minnesota, in the interior 
lakes of New York, and in the Mississippi Valley, 
but through fish-culture operations its habitat has 
been greatly extended. Its range also extends well 
into British America. 

Perhaps no fish lends itself better to artificial 
propagation; more than 300,000,000 were liberated 
from Federal hatcheries on the Great Lakes in 
1921. A few millions are hatched annually in the 
Aquarium, where the process of incubation in glass 
jars always attracts the attention of visitors. As 
handled in the fish hatcheries, a large specimen 
may yield 300,000 eggs. 

The Pike-perch belongs to the family of Perches, 
although its form is suggestive of the Pikes. 

While it is regarded in the markets as one of 
the best of our food-fishes and great numbers are 
taken in the net fisheries, it is highly appreciated 
as a game fish. The angler does not find it a 
difficult fish to catch and a large one will resist 
like a good-sized Pickerel. 

The Sauger, also called Sand Pike, is a little 
brother to the Pike-perch, resembling it in general 
appearance, but in size does not average more 
than a quarter of its weight. It has a smaller eye, 
a more pointed head, and a lighter coloration. It 
has much the same geographic distribution. 

The Sauger is a good food and game fish, taken 
in trolling and casting both with bait and lure. 
In some localities great numbers are taken with 
seines. 

COMMON EEL (Anguilla rostrata) 

{For illustration see Color Plate, page 126) 

The annual catch of Eels for market along the 
Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida exceeds 
3,000,000 pounds and is worth $2^0,000. 

Recently three barges, each more than 100 feet 
long and 12 feet wide, arrived at New York from 
Quebec with 165,000 pounds of live Eels. They 
were towed by way of the St. Lawrence River, 
Lake Champlain, and Hudson River and were 13 
days in transit. The barges are virtually well- 
boats, or live cars, the bottoms consisting of heavy 


no 


'I HK HOOK 0\' FISHKS 


HlatH, with nam)W «nacc8 between to provide 
abundant circulatir^n of water, 

'I'lie catch is made when l'’,elH arc workin(4 tr)- 
ward Halt water and is heaviest durint^ the dark of 
the moon. 'I'he Hcason is frr>m July to October, 
inclusive. 

Lar^e as is the catch of l‘!,cls in America, it is 
vastly (greater in I'atrfjpc. 

Science knows more tfMlav alumt the Kel than 
it did some years a^o, and tne missinK chapters in 
the I'^ers life history have been supplied throuRh 
modern deep-sea invcstif<ati(ms rather than in the 
study of fresh or coastal waters, where I',els are 
mcjre in evidence. 

Unlike Salmon, Shad, and (nher fishes which 
enter fresh waters to spawn, the b’cl descends 
streams at maturity to sjiawn far at sea. 'I he 
younK b’els—three inches or ho in l(mj<th, called 
r'lvers- that enter fresh waters in the spring in 
large numbers, and are continually working up¬ 
stream, liavc always been knrjwn, but the stages 
of growth between the egg and the I'Jver were not. 

'I'hesc stages in which the baby I'^el does not 
exceed three inches in length are of ccjmparatively 
recent discovery. We liere find it a thin, flattened 
creature, so transparent that ordinary print may 
be clearly read through its body. When first 
described in this stage it was called Lel>tocephalus 
and was not known to be the Common Kel. 

'riiese transparent larval I'icls found at sea 
in the winter months grow rapidly, and by the 
end of the year are more than two inches long, 
when they begin to transform. Hy the time they 
arc a year old they begin to appear in fresh-water 
streams as I'Jvers or young Uels about three inches 
loUK. 

Investigations by the Danish vessel Daua in 
1^20 and i() 2 i have shown that the early larval 
stages of both the American and the I'iuropean 
h'-er arc found only in the western Atlantic, at 
depths of 6(xj to 900 feet. 'I'he former spawns to 
the south and southwest of the Hermuda Islands, 
the latter to the south tind southeast. 

While the American Uel begins to enter fresh 
water at the age of a year, the Uurfjpean stiecies 
remains three years in the larval stages bemre it 
appears as the b’lvcr in hiuropean streams. 'I’lic 
latter, like the Americati h’.el, goes far inland, even 
passing within the borders of Switzerland. 


I'ernales with ripe eggs arc unknown, the millions 
of undeveloped eggs carried by each female not 
developing while the Ivels linger in fresh or coastal 
waters. 

'I'he bids found far inland are always females 
and remain in fresh water frir several years. It 
is only when tending toward reproductive maturity 
that they seek the sea. Male I'’el8 remain in tidal 
waters and are smaller and less in evidence. Dike 
females, they do nf)t reach breeding maturity until 
they have passed to sea. 

'I'he great bulk of the Kel catch everywhere 
consists of females. It is said that all the Kels 
captured in tlie great Q'^cbec fishery are females 
moving downstream. 

'I'he I'-cl catch in the St. Lawrence River is 
derived from Dels belonging to that river and its 
tributaries, including Lake Ontario. 'I'he Lake 
Ontario catch of I'iels in 1899 exceeded 12.1,000 
pounds. 'I'he annual yield of all the other (ireat 
Lakes combined seldom exceed 2,000 pounds, the 
I'alls of Niagara constituting an impassable barrier 
to all kinds of fishes. 

Ivnorrnous numbers of young I’.els gather below 
Niagara in spring and summer, but there is no 
evidence that they ever pass farther by that route. 

'I'he b-els of the upper Lakes may pass up by 
way of tlie b>ie and Welland canals. It may be 
that limited numbers of I’-els in the Mississippi 
River find means of passing into the Great Lakes. 
Whether I'icls Inhabited these lakes before the 
construction of canals, the writer is not informed. 
'I'he fishery statistics at hand contain no records 
of bids in Lake .Superior. 

b-els enter all American streams from the .St. 
Lawrence River to the Ciulf of Mckico. It is 
only the young b’.els that move upstream. Adults 
move downstream and do not return. Both males 
and females die at sea after the first and only 
breeding season in their live.s. 'I'he b’el is very 
prolific, each female producing from 5,000,000 to 
10,000,000 eggs. 

Lels^ are taken in other ways than with nets. 
“Bobbing for Kels” is done with worms strung on 
thread, which looped in a .small bunch make a 
bait verv attractive to J'.els. 'I'hey are alsf> taken 
in small wire traps called eelpots, by eelspears, 
and are even taken by digging and spearing in the 
mud, where they bury themselves in winter. 









(XJK iiki<i'i’a(;k or rnK fkksh vvA ri-:Ks 


M 



I'tiiritcd \)y Maohimc Murayama 


SrO'rrKl) CA'I'KISII {Iclalurus punaatus) [at topj; C()MMON HULLIIKAI) i/lmeiurus nehulosus) 

[in muldlc at left], AND O'lUKK CA I FISUKS 

'I'hcrc arc many kinds of Catfishes in our waters, and they arc abundant cnouKh to he of considerable 
importance in the supply of food fishes. 'I'lie annual catch for market has l>ccn known to exceed 14,000,ocx) 
tHmnds. (ircat numbers arc also taken everywhere with hor»k and line. 

Ill 













112 


Painted by Hashime Murayania 

LARGE-MOUl'M BLACK BASS {Micropterus salmoides) [upper]; SMALL-MOUTH BLACK BASS {Micruplerus dolomieii) [lower] 

'I'he Black Basses are both well-known anglers’ fishes, the Small-mouth species being by far the gamier of the two. Although closely related thev are easilv 
distinguished by the size of the mouth and by the color pattern; in the Small-mouth Bass the upper jaw does not extend beyond the eve as in the Large-mouth species 
Jn the former the color markings tend to form vertical bands, while the latter has a dark stripe along the side. 














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THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Painted by Hashime Murayama 

COMMON EEL {Anguilla rostratd) 


The Eel is a fish that spends its long life in fresh water, descending to the sea in old age to spawn but once 
and die. For centuries its mysterious ways have puzzled naturalists who have discovered recently that it spawns 
near the Bermuda Islands in deep water, the transparent larval Eels not seeking the rivers until a year old, when 
they appear as Elvers working upstream. 


126 












Certain Citizens of the Warm Sea 

By LOUIS L. MOWBRAY 


E ven man’s most terrific wars 
against his fellows have a respite; 
they are but cataclysms in the 
normal course of the world; but the bat¬ 
tle of fish against fish—furious, quarter¬ 
less, to the death—is everlasting. So, 
within the warm balmy waters of the 
Gulf Stream oflF the Florida coast, where 
the lazy waves of the surface seem to 
typify peace, the never-ending Armaged¬ 
don of the finny world rises to its highest 
pitch. 

It is almost impossible for the human 
mind to conceive the continuous struggle 
for existence that in these warm seas 
goes on beneath the surface of the water. 
If such conditions existed on “land and 
the resultant mental strain were not pro¬ 
vided for by Nature, few would survive 
the constant tension upon the nervous 
system. 

A fish starting in pursuit of another 
frequently attracts the attention of one 
of a larger species and is in turn pur¬ 
sued. Often, in southern waters, when 
an angler hooks a fish, and before it can 
be drawn into the boat, it is cut in two by 
the jaws of a larger enemy; for most 
carnivorous fish seem instantly to sense 
prey when one of their number is in 
trouble, and a blood lust becomes epi¬ 
demic forthwith. 

LIFE AT A TERRIFIC PACE 

The strife of the seas takes many 
forms. Fishes that feed in shoals have 
a well-planned method for acquiring their 
living food, and the same procedure is 
carried out so often that it resembles the 
workings of an exceptionally well-trained 
body of soldiers. 

When a shoal of smaller fish is located 
near the shore, the larger fishes encircle 
the shoal, herding it to an almost compact 
mass, occasionally darting into it and get¬ 
ting a mouthful. Sometimes they do not 
strike the shoal, but continue driving it 
as bait until somewhat larger fishes at¬ 
tack it. The great fish then proceed to 
feed upon those which have been lured 
by the original prey. 


During the melee the surface water is 
lashed into foam, often for an area ex¬ 
ceeding a mile, and the little fellows are 
jumping every way in their mad efforts to 
escape their enemies. 

Then from the air above comes another 
menace to the safety of the panic-stricken 
legions. The seagulls, man-o’-war birds, 
and pelicans dart upon them as they break 
the surface in their mad efforts to escape 
the dangers of the sea. 

It is possible to locate a shoal of small 
fishes by watching the birds which feed 
from the sea. These fly over the shoal, 
waiting for the inevitable attack of the 
larger fishes to drive the food they seek 
to a point of vantage near the surface 
of the water. 

THE SUPPOSED PASSING OF THE TILEFISH 

In addition to sheltering nearly every 
species of sea creature under the laws of 
chance by providing extreme prolificness, 
Nature has not failed to furnish other 
protective measures to offset somewhat 
the dangers that everywhere threaten to 
eliminate whole species. 

Numerous cases are recorded where a 
certain kind of fish has been almost ob¬ 
literated and for long stretches of time 
has been thought to be extinct, but in 
some manner a sufficient number of indi¬ 
viduals of the species remained to find 
protecting shelter where they might live 
and propagate their kind. 

One case is that of the Tilefish, of which 
much has been written. In the year 1882 
vessels arriving in Philadelphia, New 
York, and Boston reported having passed 
through miles of dead fish of this species. 
From the various accounts, it was esti¬ 
mated that an area of from 5,000 to 7,500 
square miles was thickly strewn with the 
dead and dying creatures. The number 
of fish in this area was computed to be in 
excess of 1,000,000,000. 

Various reasons were advanced for this 
gigantic tragedy, the most plausible being 
that a very sudden drop in temperature 
along the northern edge of the Gulf Stream 
proved fatal to these warm-water fish. 



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130 


I’HE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by James A. Allison 


FEMALE SAWFISH TAKEN ALIVE 

3 his catch, made with a net, was exhibited for several weeks in a 36-foot tank at the Miami Aquarium. 
She gave birth to nine young, the only record of sawfish being born in captivity. 


It seemed for several years that the 
species was almost totally wiped out, but 
recently Tilehsh have been rediscovered 
in great numbers in their former habitat. 
It is not known where they retired until 
their numbers became strengthened, but 
the fact remains that this valuable food- 
fish is back again in normal numbers. 

Among the coral reefs off Florida one 
frequently sees millions of the fry of some 
pelagic or surface-swimming, offshore 
species taking shelter in and about the 
skeleton ribs and plates of a wreck resting 
on the ocean bottom, yet easily discern¬ 
ible in the clear southern waters, which 
offers a harbor for a considerable num¬ 
ber seeking safety. Not only does the 
structure of the abandoned ship provide 
hiding places, but the Grouper family, 
which makes the wreck a regular habitat, 
acts as a guard for the smaller fish against 
their arch enemies, the Jacks and Yellow 
Tails, which are in turn sought by the 
Groupers as food. The fry thus fre¬ 
quently remain unmolested, as they are 
too small to make food for the Groupers. 

When the fry move from place to 
place, they usually do so at dusk or 


through the night, and then on the sur¬ 
face of the sea, where they find their prin¬ 
cipal food—plankton, the weak floating 
organisms, and nekton, the actively swim¬ 
ming animal life—which is more plentiful 
on the surface after the sun’s rays are 
lessened. 

A PARADOX OF PROTECTION 

Many fishes of the warm seas are 
chameleon-like in their coloration and 
take on the color and hue of their sur¬ 
roundings for protection, while others 
seek the holes and crevices into which 
the pursuing fish is unable to follow. 

Some fishes, to protect their young, 
carry their eggs in their mouths. Nature 
has so taken care of other species that 
they are hermaphrodite. Others live in 
the gill cavities of a greater fish. Some 
species of the sucking fish, as an illustra¬ 
tion, utilize the gill cavities of larger 
fishes, such as the Mola, or Giant Sunfish, 
and the Sailfish, for this purpose. 

Many live in other marine animals. 
The amia, for instance, lives with the 
animal in the large West Indian Conch 
{Strombus gigantus), whose spiral shell 


CERTAIN CITIZENS OF THE WARM SEA 


131 



so beautifully tinted on the inside was 
frequently used as a fireplace ornament a 
generation ago. While there finding pro¬ 
tection, this little fish carries its eggs in 
its mouth. Another species, the Fieras- 
ferer, lives in the Sea-pudding, one of the 
Holothurians, or Sea-cucumbers. 

Into the battle for and against the mul¬ 
tiplication of these species steps man, 
who, provided with human mind and in¬ 
tellect, looks to the sea for food, diver¬ 
sion, and for useful products of benefit to 
his kind. Industries have been built up 
which take countless millions of fishes 
yearly for food and other commercial 
uses. 

THE LURE OF THE SINGING LINE 

It is doubtful if there is any one except 
the biologist who appreciates the living 
things in the sea more than do sportsmen, 
who come in ever-increasing numbers to 
the fishing grounds for a try at their 
health-giving, out-of-doors recreation. 

The big-game hunter of the land, when 
coming upon a bull moose standing clear 
of the woods and providing an excellent 
opportunity for a shot, will sometimes 
tremble so that he is unable to pull the 
trigger. So there is a thrill all its own in 
the striking of the Tarpon, Sailfish, or 
some of the other game fishes of the Gulf 
Stream. It has been said truly that one 
strike invariably means a convert. 

Wary, strong, and of remarkable game¬ 
ness, it is true that these wonderful fishes 
try the strength, skill, and endurance of 
even the best and most experienced 
angler; and, when the prize is finally 
landed, the successful one feels all the 
exultation of one who has waged a mighty 
battle and won. 

While many worship at the shrine of 
the Tarpon, some of the more experi¬ 
enced sportsmen, equipped with light 
tackle, esteem just as highly, if not a grade 
higher, the gameness of other fighters of 
the warm seas, such as the Sailfish, the 
Wahoo, and the Bonefish. The Bonefish 
of recent years has become particularly 
popular among sportsmen, and world-wise 
anglers journey even from Europe to 
Florida to match their ability with this 
animated steel spring. 

The Tarpon is abundant in Florida 
waters, on both coasts, where hundreds 
of sportsmen, winter and summer, seek it 
for the thrill and pride of capture it pro- 


Photograph by Van Campen Heilner 

THE SOUTHERN PORPOISE, SOMETIMES 

ERRONEOUSLY CALLED THE DOLPHIN 

The great flats of the Bay of Florida is one of the 
favorite feeding grounds of this swift and graceful 
fish. When harpooned it puts up a long and thrill¬ 
ing battle. 


132 


I'HE BOOK OF FISHES 



Undersea Photograph by Dr. W. H. Longley 

UNDERSEA STUDY OF A FAMILY GROUP OF YELLOW GRUNTS 


To realize the full value of this amazing photograph, one must remember that these multi-hued fish 
are at home among the coral and sea-fans of their natural habitat, many feet beneath the surface of the 
Gulf Stream. The Yellow Grunt is one of the species of fishes which makes a croaking or grunting sound, 
a fact from which it derives its namei A distinguishing feature of this fish is its bright red or orange color 
at the base of the jaws and inside the mouth. The color patch is revealed to its fullest extent when the 
mouth is opened wide in the presence of an enemy, or when it invites the services of the Butterfly fish to 
enter between its jaws and extract certain parasites attached to the walls of its mouth. 


CERTAIN CITIZENS OF THE WARM SEA 


133 



Photograph by A. W. and Julian A. Dimock 

TARPON LEAPING 


This great fish, the “Silver King,” dear to the heart of all sportsmen, was caught by the camera in the very 
act of shaking the hook from its mouth. 


vides. When one is caught with rod and 
reel, it leaps repeatedly from the water, 
and as the sunlight plays upon its glisten¬ 
ing scales while the angler battles con¬ 
stantly to prevent it from freeing itself 
during the struggle, the thrill must be ex¬ 
perienced to be fully appreciated. 

This best-known of the larger game 
fishes of the sea, called the “Silver King,” 
is bluish on the back, with its under parts 
and sides a wonderful, glistening silver 
(Color Plate, page 152). Its scales are 
large and iridescent and are utilized 
in the making of numerous fancy articles 
which find a ready market as souvenirs 
of the habitat of the Tarpon. Little 
is known of the breeding habits of the 
Tarpon, but very young individuals are 
found in brackish waters, where they 
remain until strong enough to enter into 
the life struggle of the deep. 

THE SAILFISH A CLOSE COMPETITOR 
FOR POPULARITY 

The Sailfish is considered a highly de¬ 
sirable fish to encounter, for not only is 
it valued for the resultant sport after be¬ 
ing hooked, but it is also highly prized 


for the excellent mounted trophy it makes. 
Many of these fish adorn the home walls 
and club-rooms of anglers who take pride 
in their catches (Color Plate, page 154). 

It was this fish which afforded the late 
President Harding and members of his 
official family their sport when in Miami 
waters. 

Caught with light tackle, such gamesters 
require considerable skill in the landing, 
being very strong and of supreme courage. 
The Tarpon and Sailfish when hooked 
leap repeatedly many feet inta,the air in 
their efforts to free themselves from the 
hook and are very frequently successful in 
such ring generalship. 

The ^ailfish is not only a good sporting 
fish, but is also of considerable food value 
as well. This remarkably swift oceanic 
citizen is of unusual shape; its large, sail¬ 
like dorsal fin and its rapier-like spear 
make it a curiosity much sought after by 
the angler. 

Little is definitely known of the use 
of the large dorsal fin, but it is not un¬ 
usual to see it “hoisted” on the still waters 
of the tropics in the fish’s surface dashes 
after prey. Its likenesss to a boat’s sail 


134 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by Herbert R. Duckwall 


AN OCEAN SUN-FISH, WEIGHT 1,500 POUNDS, CAUGHT IN THE GULF STREAM 

xMIAMI, FLORIDA 



Photograph from Miami Aquarium 

A MUTTON FISH BITTEN IN TWO BY A LARGER FISH 

Landing half a fish is not a rare experience for sportsmen at Miami, Florida, for the hungry Barracuda 
is sometimes quicker than the man with the line. This mutton fish was seized and contended for while 
being hauled into the boat. 










CERTAIN CITIZENS OF THE WARM SEA 


135 



The Porpoise in great schools move up and down the Atlantic coast during certain periods of the year. 
They are said to devour their weight in fish every forty-eight hours. 


led inevitably to the fish being dubbed by 
its common name. 

The Marlin fish, which is a close rela¬ 
tive of the Sailfish and built very much on 
the same lines, has the sharp, protruding 
snout, but the dorsal fin is much smaller. 
It is purely a pelagic species. It is an 
excellent food-fish. The Marlin is not so 
numerous as the Sailfish, nor does it grow 
to be as large in Florida waters, but it 
is gamier, and, like most of the fighting 
fishes of southern localities, has a pen¬ 
chant for leaping clear of the water in its 
struggles for freedom (Color Plate, page 
157)- 

THE DOLPHIN OF THE MARINER NOT 
THE FISH OF THE ANCIENTS 

Of the game fishes the Dolphin must be 
mentioned in the front rank. Much has 
been told of this wonderful species, and 
by the speed-loving American it is looked 
upon as one of the greatest of fishes, for 
there is probably no other citizen of the 
deep which travels so swiftly. It spends 
its entire life in the open seas. While 
idling, its movements are sluggish, but 
when in quest of its prey it moves with 
incredible rapidity, and to one observing 


its movements it appears like nothing so 
much as a dash of color in the sea—a 
yellow-blue-whitish streak that is almost 
lost in the green water (Color Plate, page 
150). 

Of all deep-water fishes, the Dolphin 
possesses the greatest power to change its 
color. A dying Dolphin affords a most 
beautiful and spectacular sight, when, 
with all the iridescence of an opal, it 
changes hue so rapidly that the brain 
cannot grasp the beauty of one color be¬ 
fore another comes into view. In life its 
general color is a blue or emerald green 
above, with brighter blue dots showing on 
the base; the under parts are silvery and 
the caudal and pectoral fins afe a clear 
yellow. It is an excellent food-fish, but, 
being not common in quantity, has little 
commercial value. It is caught usually 
only by chance, when one is fishing for 
other game fishes which inhabit the re¬ 
gions where the Dolphin lives. 

THE BONEFISH, A STEEL SPRING OF 
THE DEEP 

The Bonefish represents a single species, 
inhabiting all warm and tropical seas. It 
is considered to be among the most inde- 



136 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph from Mrs. Bernard F. Gimbel 

A RECORD SAILFISH AND ITS FAIR CAPTOR 

The Sailfish ranks with the lordly Tarpon as a trophy par excellence. 
The great dorsal sail, which it runs up or reefs in a flash, its long rapier-like 
snout with which it attacks fish prey, great courage as a fighter plus the 
ability to leap from its natural habitat, high in the air, while endeavoring 
to shake the hook from its mouth, present a thrilling picture. 

fatigable fighters of fishdom, and is a 
source of much sport to the angler, who 
will often travel hundreds of miles for an 
opportunity to match his skill and wits 
with this fish. Its name is, like most 
common names of fishes, derived from its 
most striking feature, in this case an 
internal one. Its bony structure is 
similar to that of the Herring. 

In the localities where this fish abounds 
the natives have a way of stretching it 


before cooking, so that 
the bones may be 
released from the flesh. 
When cooked proper¬ 
ly, after this operation, 
it provides a fine dish 
and the bones may be 
easily drawn out. 

The color of the 
Bonefish is a beautiful 
glistening silver and 
the scales are much 
desired by the natives 
of the West Indies. I n 
fish-scale work for 
decorating ladies^ cos¬ 
tumes the scales of 
this fish are used. The 
writer has seen an 
evening gown made 
wholly of Bonefish 
scales which was in¬ 
deed a thing of beauty. 
The scales were bored 
and laid on a fabric 
base like shingles on 
a roof. The resultant 
effect was like that of 
the natural body of 
the fish (Color Plate, 
page 151). 

Of all silvery-colored 
fishes, probably none 
equals the Moonfish in 
beauty. These slug¬ 
gish little fishes fre¬ 
quent shady places 
and sandy shores, 
where they are taken 
in seines in large 
quantities. To the 
quiet observer of their 
habits, they appear to 
be duly appreciative 
of the fact that they 
are admired, for they 
seem to be forever 
cleaning and preening themselves in the 
sands (Color Plate, page 147). 

The peculiar, moon-like contour of the 
bodies of these fish is mainly responsible 
for their name. They are literally the 
“high-brows’" of the fish tribe, their high 
foreheads giving them what passes for 
the appearance of intellectuality. When 
seen at close range, the iridescence of 
their silvery bodies is more beautiful 
than mother-of-pearl, which the sides of 


CERTAIN CITIZENS OF THE WARM SEA 


137 


the fish so closely resemble. I'hey glisten 
in the sunlight like the sun flash from a 
mirror. As a food-fish some say they are 
equally as good as the Pompano, high 
praise indeed. 

Traits which mark land animals, with 
which man is more familiar than he is 
with the sea-dwellers, can be traced in the 
turbulent life under water. Killer-whales 
travel in packs like wolves and stalk their 
prey in much the same way. Other fishes, 
because of their appearance, have been 
given names to indicate a resemblance to 
land forms. There is the Dogfish, the Sea 
Catfish, and the Hogfish; but it is doubtful 
if ever a fish was given a more appropri¬ 
ate name than the nickname bestowed on 
the Barracuda. 

THE TIGER OF THE SEA 

The Barracuda is a carnivorous pirate 
from the tropical and subtropical regions 
and has been recorded as reaching a 
length of eight feet. It is amazingly 
swift in action, and strikes its prey with¬ 
out hesitation, on sight, darting with 
lightning rapidity at any moving thing in 
the sea, big or small, fast or slow. While 
cruising, its movements are slow and 
sluggish, and its habit of frequently hid¬ 
ing under some floating log or pinnacle 
of rock reminds one of a U-boat lurking 
in the ocean lanes, but ready to strike 
down the passerby (Color Plate, page 
H3); 

When taken with rod and reel, this fish 
proves to be a savage fighter. Its teeth 
are most sinister in appearance, having 
on each side a sharp, cutting edge, which, 
with the powerful leverage of its mighty 
jaws, make it a formidable foe. It will 
attack almost any kind of sea denizen, 
its own species included, no matter what 
the size, and with one snap it can sever 
the body of an unbelievably large fish. 
This has been demonstrated often to 
fishermen, who have had their catch 
taken by the Barracuda before it could be 
hauled into the boat. 

Natives of tropical waters fear the 
Barracuda more than the Shark, and with 
good cause, as is attested by the injuries 
this fierce fish has inflicted on the bodies 
of individuals who have been so unfortu¬ 
nate as to be struck by its wicked jaws. 

Yet this ferocious creature, like practi¬ 
cally all fishes kept in captivity, becomes 
docile when properly cared for. At the 



Photograph from Alfred Sanford 


A TARPON WEIGHING 158 POUNDS, TAKEN 
IN FLORIDA WATERS 

The Tarpon is one of the earliest of the large 
fishes for which American sportsmen angled. Conse¬ 
quently it has been extensively advertised, and there¬ 
fore is the most widely known of the sea fighters. 



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CERTAIN CITIZENS OF THE WARM SEA 


139 


Miami Aquarium, so admirably located 
at Miami Beach, Florida, one of the 
aquarists, when superintending the clean¬ 
ing of the tanks, will pet the Barracuda 
much as a child strokes the back of a pet 
cat, and the fish will, in a seemingly 
gentle way, take food from his hand. 

FOOD VALUE OF WARM-SEA FISH 

In the Florida markets the several 
members of the Grouper family are highly 
considered and find a ready market, while 
in Bermuda these fishes are not looked 
upon with favor. The Groupers represent 
one of the largest families of fishes in 
tropical and subtropical waters. Some of 
the species reach a length of eight to ten 
feet and weigh, at times, as much as 600 
pounds. 

The Black Grouper, which grows to be 
one of the largest of the family, is ex¬ 
tremely wary and is one of the most diffi¬ 
cult of fishes to land. When one is still¬ 
fishing, this species will sometimes en¬ 
circle the bait for hours before deciding 
to take it. 

One would imagine that the fish looks 
its surroundings over very carefully be¬ 
fore venturing to take the bait; but, 
when apparently satisfied that it should 
take it, the Black Grouper bites at it most 
viciously and forthwith makes for the 
nearest hole in the coral reef, and thus 
it often frees itself by running the line 
over a sharp edge of the reef. Once 
the hooked fish reaches a hole, it is almost 
impossible to bring it again to the sur¬ 
face. Trolling is by far the best way to 
take the Black Grouper (Color Plate, 
page 146). 

The Nassau Grouper is another large 
member of the family., It, like the other 
Groupers, inhabits the coral reefs and 
lives a solitary life, except during the 
breeding season, when it is gregarious. 
During this period it congregates in large 
shoals, from which habit the family re¬ 
ceives its name. The Nassau species 
changes color with great facility, but 
during the change a black spot at the 
base of the tail retains its deep color, no 
matter what other tints may come and 
go all over its body (Color Plate, page 

145)- 

The Red Grouper is not, on the average, 
as large as its Nassau cousin, forty 
pounds being a high weight for this 
species. It is a good food-fish and is beau¬ 


tiful in appearance. It has habits similar 
to the other Groupers (Color Plate, page 

145)- 

The Gag, a smaller-scale Grouper, is not 
only esteemed as a food-fish wherever it 
may be found, but is also one of the 
gamiest of the family. It seldom attains 
a greater length than four feet. Its hab¬ 
itat is principally along the Florida reefs; 
it also frequents the Bermudas (Color 
Plate, page 146). 

The gamiest of the Grunts, the Margate 
fish, is another excellent food-fish, like¬ 
wise the Mutton-fish, of the Snapper fam¬ 
ily, which is considered the best fighter 
of that clan and also the largest repre¬ 
sentative. Some Mutton-fish reach a 
weight of as much as 25 pounds (Color 
Plates, pages 148 and 144). 

THE MAJESTIC MACKEREL AND HIS 
KINGLY COUSIN 

Some of the species mentioned are 
popular only locally, but the Spanish 
Mackerel is known favorably not only in 
its own habitat, but wherever shipping 
facilities are such as to provide for the 
transportation of this sound, finely 
flavored fish. Millions of pounds are 
shipped north annually from the State 
of Florida alone. From one market. Key 
West, more than 3,000,000 pounds are 
shipped each year. They are surface¬ 
living fish of great game qualities, elegant 
in form and color, and among the swift¬ 
est fishes of the sea, as their stream-like 
line and tail indicate. They appear in 
countless numbers in southern waters 
from November to March, during which 
period they are taken in great quanti¬ 
ties for the market (Color Plate, page 
H9)- 

Associated with the Spanish Mackerel 
is the Kingfish, which is somewhat larger, 
on the average. Both belong to the same 
family and are much alike in many re¬ 
spects. As a food-fish, the Kingfish ranks 
next to the Spanish Mackerel, and nearly 
half a million pounds are shipped each 
year from the Key West markets (Color 
Plate, page 149). 

THE NUMEROUS JACK FAMILY 

Most of the fishes referred to are car¬ 
nivorous and are not frequently seen in 
the neighboring waters of populated sec¬ 
tions. It is by no means a rarity, how¬ 
ever, for even the most wary—excepting. 


140 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by John Oliver La Gorce 


SWAPPING WHOPPERS 


To young and old alike the mystery and lure of fishing is ever beckoning and the teller of fantastic fish 

stories is always with us. 


perhaps, the Dolphin—to frequent the 
haunts of man. 

While wariness is a common trait of 
game fish, one species, the Jacks, seems 
to have no fear of man and his traffic. 
They may often be observed resting 
lazily, in tidal waters, under a bridge or 
near the shore, where the traffic is con¬ 
stant. They cruise slowly around, await¬ 
ing the approach of their favorite food, 
the Mullet. When a school of Mullets 
appears in sight, there is instant action. 
The Jacks marshal their forces and bear 
down upon their prey, upon which they 
wreak spectacular and terrible carnage. 

The Amber Jack is the largest and 
gamiest of its family and inhabits both 
the shoal and deep waters among the 
Florida Keys, the West Indies, and Ber¬ 
muda. It provides excellent sport for 
trolling and will take almost any kind of 
live bait offered by still-fishing. It is a 
carnivorous, surface-living fish of con¬ 
siderable food value in the Bermudas and 
the West Indies, where large numbers 
are taken for market purposes. It is not 
so highly considered in the Florida mar¬ 
kets, where its cousin, the Yellow Jack, is 
more common (Color Plate, page 155). 

The Yellow Jack is also a surface-living 


fish of graceful lines and beautiful color¬ 
ation. It resembles the Amber Jack 
closely, both in habits and appearance, 
although it does not reach so large a size. 

CONTRIBUTING TO THE WORLd’s 
KNOWLEDGE OF KNOWN FISH 

The fishes already mentioned are com¬ 
mon in the waters adjacent to the Gulf 
Stream and are widely known, many 
miles from their habitat, for their game¬ 
ness and sporting qualities or for their 
food values; but now and then a new 
Gulf Stream species has been found 
which requires classification. 

Such a find was made in the case of 
Allison’s Tuna. This beautiful fish, of 
which but a few specimens have been 
caught, was taken at the edge of the Gulf 
Stream, off Miami Beach, Florida. It 
is proved to be a new species added to the 
American fauna—a species second to 
none of the other members of the family 
in coloration and interest. It reaches a 
large size and will in all probability be¬ 
come one of the fishes most sought for 
by anglers in the Florida waters. The 
newness of the fish will doubtless cause 
sportsmen to vie with one another in their 
efforts to land a specimen of record size. 


CERTAIN CITIZENS OF THE WARM SEA 


141 



Photograph by Dr. W. H. Longley 

THE GRAY SNAPPER (NEOMENIS GRISEUS) AMONG GORGONIANS 



Photograph by L. F. W illiams 


SWELL (PUFFER) FISH FOUND IN ALL WARM SEAS 

To frighten its enemies, this fish is permitted by a considerate Nature to fill itself with air when approached. 

Sometimes it puffs too much and bursts. 



142 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 


The new Tunas appear to be most numer¬ 
ous in January. 

The writer has good cause to believe 
the reason this fish has not been taken 
until recently is because the tackle used 
for the Sailfish and other fishes common 
in the waters harboring this Tuna was 
too light to stand the strain put upon it 
when this powerful fish struck. Many 
lines and rods have been broken by large 
fishes in this section, and sharks have 
been blamed, when unquestionably, in a 
great many cases, it was the newly dis¬ 
covered Tuna. 

The Thunnus allisoni is, like the others 
of the genus, a warm-blooded fish and its 
flesh is of fine quality and flavor. 

Reptiles as well as fish have found the 
Gulf Stream a kindly habitat; but Turtles, 
probably the most valuable of reptiles, are 
diminishing rapidly in many of the locali¬ 
ties bathed by this great stream of warm 
water where they were formerly abun¬ 
dant. During the period of slavery it is 
said that many negroes were prompted to 
try to escape, in some sections of the 
South, because they were compelled to 
subsist mainly on a diet of Terrapin. Now 
Terrapin is a much-sought-for delicacy, 
difficult to obtain. And what is true of 
the Terrapin is also true of practically all 
other turtles. 

Without doubt, the Green Turtle is the 
finest-flavored of the sea turtles and the 
most highly esteemed as food. It is an 
herbivorous feeder, inhabiting the open 
seas in the West Indies, the Bahamas, 
Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific 
Ocean, and the Straits of Florida, al¬ 
though it is now almost extinct in Florida 
waters. The greatest numbers are taken 
oflF the Mosquito Coast of Central 
America (Color Plate, page 158). 

The Green Turtle is a beautiful species, 
reaching a weight of more than 700 
pounds, but averaging considerably less. 
In captivity it becomes quite tame and 
thrives on turtle-grass, lettuce, and purs¬ 
lane, or “pusley.” It will eat flesh, but 
lives much better on vegetable foods. 

There is danger that these Turtles will 
be vs^iped out of existence. They are far 
less numerous than in past seasons, due 
to the natives digging the eggs. The 
female Turtle visits the beaches from 
April until June to deposit her eggs. This 
she does by digging a hole to a depth of 
from 14 to 18 inches in the sand, where 


she lays from one to two hundred eggs. 
On the fourteenth night from the first 
deposit—on what is known as the second 
crawl—she returns to lay more eggs close 
by her first nest. 

BIRDS ARE ENEMIES OF THE GREEN TURTLE 

Not only do the natives of the islands 
where the Turtles crawl rob the nests, but 
they frequently catch the Turtle after she 
has deposited her eggs, thus wiping out at 
one stroke both the mother and all her 
potential progeny. 

Although statutes covering the protec¬ 
tion of the Turtles are written into the 
laws where these reptiles were formerly 
plentiful, the marauders continue their 
work of despoilation. Yet even now be¬ 
tween 1,500 and 2,000 Green Turtles are 
brought annually to the Key West mar¬ 
kets, the average weight being 130 pounds. 

Man, although the greatest, is only one 
of the enemies of the turtle. When the 
young are hatched, they dig to the surface 
of the sand and immediately make toward 
the sea. Their instinct in locating the 
proper direction is unerring, and freshly 
hatched Turtles, flipped like a coin and 
turned away from the sea, will wheel 
around and make directly for the salt 
water. The Pelican and Man-o’-War 
Bird swallow the young as soon as they 
observe the small creatures on their way 
to the water, and if they reach the water 
they are harassed by their fellow sea- 
dwellers. 

THE SOURCE OF TORTOISE SHELL 

The Hawks-bill, or Shell Turtle, is with¬ 
out question the most beautiful of sea 
turtles. It is the producer of the much¬ 
valued tortoise shell of commerce. This 
species is found in considerable numbers 
in the West Indies, where its members 
deposit their eggs from May to July. It 
is also distributed throughout the Gulf 
of Mexico, south to Brazil and the Straits 
of Florida, although it is now rare in 
the last-named section to an even greater 
extent than the Green Turtle. Large 
quantities of the valuable shell are shipped 
every year, principally to Europe. The 
flesh is not as highly esteemed as that of 
the green turtle, but it is eaten in some 
localities (Color Plate, page 158). 

While the shell turtles are taken prin¬ 
cipally in large nets, into which they are 
driven, the natives of the West Indies 



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Painted by Hashime Murayama 

THE MARGATE FISH {Haemulon alburn) 

The Margate Fish is a food fish of considerable importance in Florida markets, reaching a weight of ten pounds. It is the largest and gamest fighter of its family. I 
is found in the Bermudas, West Indies, Florida Keys, and south to Brazil, living on coral and grassy bottoms, and feeding on crustaceans, worms and mollusks. 




























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CERTAIN CITIZENS OF THE WARM SEA 


159 


have another method of catching them, 
known as “bullying.” They drop over a 
sleeping turtle the “bully,” an iron hoop 
four feet in diameter covered with a net 
like the crown of a hat. The Turtle be¬ 
comes entangled in the meshes and is then 
easily brought to the surface. 

When alarmed, the Turtle will hide its 
head, much as the Ostrich is said to do, 
and then considers itself quite safe from 
observation. At the Miami Aquarium 
one of the turtle specimens has found a 
conveniently located hole in the rocks of 
its tank and spends most of the time with 
its head thrust in the opening, its body 
dangling outside. Scores of times visitors 
have rushed to the office of the director to 
inform him that one of his prize specimens 
was caught in a crevice and was strangling 
to death. 

THE CRAWFISH, PRIZED COUSIN OF THE 
NORTHERN LOBSTER 

Crustaceans play no mean part in the 
life of the sea. They cover a wide range 
in size, from the most minute of creatures 
to the great Japanese Crab of the western 
Pacific, whose claws have a spread of 15 
or 16 feet. High in the rank of the 
American crustaceans stands the Crawfish 
or Spiny Lobster {PanuUrus argus)^ of 
southern salt waters. It is smaller but of 
even a more delicate flavor than its 
northern cousin {Homarus americanus). 
This species should not be confounded 
with the fresh-water Crawfish, which is 
an entirely different form. 

The PanuUrus argus^ or Southern 
Lobster, is one of the largest of the crus¬ 
taceans known to inhabit the Atlantic, 
the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas 
and is generally conceded to be the most 
toothsome. Reaching at times the ex¬ 
treme length of four feet, the Crawfish 
provides an abundance of food material. 
Large numbers are shipped every year 
from the Florida markets. It dwells 
among the coral reefs and heads and is 
usually caught in traps baited with small 
fish, although “bullying” and spearing 
are also practiced to some extent (Color 
Plate, page 153). 

The Crawfish is not only a delicacy 


from the standpoint of human consump¬ 
tion, but is relished, too, by the inhabit¬ 
ants of the sea and is an excellent bait for 
most fish in the Florida waters. In the 
Miami Aquarium it is the staple food for 
nearly all kinds of fishes. Even the most 
purely herbivorous fishes eat, and appear 
to relish, the fine white flesh of the Craw¬ 
fish. 

Crawfish are easily kept in an aquarium 
and make an interesting exhibit. This is 
true particularly of the female during 
the spawning season, when she is busy, 
almost constantly, combing her eggs in her 
efforts to give her prospective progeny a 
fair start in the arduous life into which 
they are about to enter. The figure on 
the left (Color Plate, page 153) shows a 
specimen carrying her eggs. On the last 
leg may be noted a pincer, which is used 
in removing the dead eggs and debris 
which may adhere to the egg clusters. 
Large numbers of the eggs have been 
hatched and scientifically observed at the 
Miami Aquarium with a view to increas¬ 
ing this valuable food supply. 

At the Aquarium many laboratory tests 
are made of the structure and compo¬ 
sition of marine forms peculiar to local 
waters. Every stage in the life of fish 
is studied. Some interesting discoveries 
have been made, and others will undoubt¬ 
edly follow, whereby man will benefit. 
More and more are the peoples of the 
earth looking to the sea for sustenance 
and even for leather substitutes and 
various other products. Science has 
helped much in garnering the sea’s valu¬ 
able materials for the use of the land’s 
dominant animal. 

Whether looked upon merely as poten¬ 
tial food in a world in which food is be¬ 
coming relatively scarcer; as interesting 
or beautiful creatures worthy of study 
and admiration, or as furnishing the ma¬ 
terial for a thrilling sport, the fish of the 
southern Gulf Stream are receiving more 
and more attention, from the all-too- 
small group of distinguished ichthyolo¬ 
gists who specialize in this investigation. 

Ages before Izaak Walton wrote of 
the fascination of catching fish only large 
enough to bob a tiny cork, the lure ex- 


160 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by Illustrations Bureau Illustrated London News 

FISH SCALING A SEVEN-FOOT WALL 

Pectoral and pelvic fins have been compared to legs and arms. A species of Catfish in India are here 
shown climbing from the Jumna Canal up to the Jumna River using their pectoral and pelvic fins. It is 
said these Catfish are provided with a special sucking apparatus which enables them to cling to the wall. 
The Jumna is the chief tributary of the Upper Ganges. It supplies the waters for the irrigation works of 
the East and West Jumna Canals. 








CERTAIN CITIZENS OF THE WARM SEA 


161 



Photograoh by Mrs. S. Sanford Procter 


FOUR SAWFISH IN TWO HOURS IN MIAMI WATERS 


erted by the finny tribe for sport-loving 
men had been conceded. When the hook¬ 
ing of small fresh-water creatures can 
bring its joys, is it any wonder that hum¬ 


ble citizen and President alike grow en¬ 
thusiastic over battles royal with rod and 
reel in which they match their skill with 
the great creatures of the Gulf Stream. 









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162 



Curious Inhabitants of the Gulf Stream 

By DR. JOHN T. NICHOLS, Curator of Recent Fishes 

American Museum of Natural History 


W E THINK of tropical seas as 
the home of a gaudily colored as¬ 
semblage of fishes. In a sense, 
this first impression is correct. Active, 
short-bodied, elastic-scaled, spiny-finned, 
bright-colored species here occupy the 
center of the stage. 

As a matter of fact, tropical shore¬ 
lines are the great metropolis of the 
world’s fish life. The evil-visaged snake- 
like Moray (Color Plate, page 177), one 
of the most degenerate of true fishes, 
threads the hidden passages among the 
coral over which Blue Angel (Color Plate, 
page 176) and red, green, or parti-colored 
Parrot-fish (Color Plate, page 182) are 
swimming. 

Out on the open sand, spotted Floun¬ 
ders lie, matching their background so as 
to be well-nigh invisible, or little Gray 
Gobies move about like shadows, eager to 
escape detection. 

Countless varieties of fishes are hiding 
in every patch of weed. Schools of Sil- 
versides. Anchovies, and Herring dart 
through the stretches of open water. 

It is their function, in the scheme of 
things, to feed on the minute organisms 
so abundant is sea water, to multiply 
prodigiously, and in turn form a basic 
food supply for a great variety of larger 
fishes. 

To do this and at the same time con¬ 
tribute something to the forces of evolu¬ 
tion, however, their numbers must be 
conserved. Their silvery sides render 
them difficult of observation by hungry 
eyes below, and they are available only 
to the quick and the keen. 

ENORMOUS QUANTITY AND DIVERSITY 
OF LIFE IN THE GULF STREAM 

Over the heat equator warm air is con¬ 
stantly rising. Heavier, cooler air from 
higher latitudes flows steadily in to take 
its place, and, deflected by the earth’s ro¬ 
tation, becomes the easterly trade winds, 
before which millions of waves, reflecting 
the clear deep blue of the ocean depths 


under their white crests, go dancing to 
the westward. 

The whole surface of the tropical At¬ 
lantic moves, drifting toward the coast 
of America, is caught and turned about 
in the Gulf of Mexico, and shoots out 
past the Keys and the east coast of Flor¬ 
ida as the Gulf Stream. 

Inasmmch as many young marine fishes 
and other animals regularly drift in ocean 
currents, it is easy to understand what 
an enormous quantity and diversity of 
life the Gulf Stream must carry. 

Furthermore, such waters, when they 
enter the Gulf, have already flowed under 
a tropical sun for many, many miles. 
The Gulf of Mexico is not a place for 
them to lose calories, and Gulf Stream 
water has a considerably higher temper¬ 
ature than the 79 degrees found, in gen¬ 
eral, at the surface of the open ocean on 
the Equator. 

TRULY TROPICAL FISHES IN FLORIDA 
WATERS 

It follows that shores bathed by such 
water have as truly tropical fishes as if 
they were situated much farther south. 

Essentially the same fishes extend from 
Florida to Brazil. Scattered represcnra- 
tives of this great tropical fish fauna of 
the western Atlantic are drifted to the 
capes of the Carolinas and, to a less ex¬ 
tent, in summer, even to New England. 
We have seen a stray Spade Fish {Chce- 
todipterus Jaber) (Color Plate, page 176) 
on the New Jersey coast and a little 
Butterfly Fish {Chcetodon ocellatus) (Color 
Plate, page 177) washed ashore on the 
south side of Long Island, New York. 

It is a little over ten years ago that the 
writer made a first trip to Florida. After 
a prolonged period of more or less dis¬ 
tasteful, though necessary, indoor activ¬ 
ities during a northern winter, he found 
himself suddenly foot-loose on the Miami 
water-front. 

The yachting party that he was to join 
here on a collecting trip among the Keys 


164 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 


was somewhere up the coast, stuck on 
a sand-bank. Meanwhile, there was 
nothing to do but sit and swing one’s 
heels. 

The first objects of interest were the 
brown Pelicans flapping by. Why they 
did not break their necks on the bottom 
when they dove precipitously from a 
height into water not more than two or 
three inches deep, was something of a 
problem. 

FISH THAT WEAR VIVID REDS, GREENS, 
YELLOWS, AND BLUES 

But the pelicans were not alone in their 
ability to see fish. It was soon discovered 
that a number of interesting species could 
be observed swimming along the shore. 
None were more beautiful or as easily 
identified as the little schools of Pork 
Fish (Color Plate, page 175), with their 
bright yellow markings set off by the 
bold black pattern on head and shoulders. 
This fish scarcely belongs with the true, 
gaudy reef fishes, but rather with those 
less dependent on the protection of the 
reef, the golds and blues and rose colors 
of whose livery are often extremely 
beautiful, yet seldom striking enough to 
make the fish conspicuous in the water. 

By no means all fishes whose haunts 
are on and among tropical reefs are 
brightly colored, but there are a great 
number of active species found there 
which wear vivid red, green, yellow, blue, 
orange, etc., and which, furthermore, 
are marked in the boldest patterns, fre¬ 
quently with black. 

Good examples are the Rock Beauty 
and the Blue Angel-fish (Color Plate, 
page 176). Various Parrot-fishes, Butter- 
fly-fishes, etc., belong to this class. 

Naturalists have offered in explanation 
that the reef itself was as full of color 
as a garden of varied flowers, wherein 
the very brightness of the fishes rendered 
them inconspicuous. To most observers, 
however, a coral reef as a whole, appears 
rather monotonous in tone, the many 
varied fishes swimming about giving 
it the principal note of high color, and 
these are not only easily seen but readily 
identified. 

SOME FISH CAN AFFORD TO BE CON- 
. SPICUOUS 

How many northern fishes can one see 
and recognize as easily, swimming in the 


water, as the black and yellow Sergeant 
Major (Color Plate, page 182), for in¬ 
stance? Granted that, in general, these 
colors render the fish conspicuous, can 
they be classed as warning colors, like 
the black-and-yellow striping of wasps? 
Apparently not, for there are plenty of 
predaceous fish which eat some of them 
and would doubtless be pleased to con¬ 
sume more. 

Immunity colors, they have been called 
most appropriately. The idea is that a 
wide-awake, active fish on a coral reef 
has so many avenues of escape from its 
enemies, so many projections to dodge 
behind and holes to hide in, as to be 
practically immune from attack. It 
can afford to be as conspicuous as it 
likes. 

Be this as it may, the striking patterns 
are a great convenience to the ichthyol¬ 
ogist, who has to separate one species 
from another, for nowhere else does one 
find so many different, but closely re¬ 
lated, species living side by side, each 
doubtless differing from the others in 
habits in some way, be it ever so slightly. 

THE NUMEROUS FAMILY OF SEA BASSES 

One of the principal families of fishes 
in our southern fauna is the sea basses, 
to which the gigantic Jewfish, the rock- 
fishes, groupers, hinds, and so forth, be¬ 
long. These are all fishes which resem¬ 
ble our northern Sea Bass. They are 
big-mouthed and voracious species, liv¬ 
ing for the most part about rocky or un¬ 
even bottom, though also swimming out 
over open stretches of sand. 

Many are food-fishes of importance. 
They have leathery mouths, so that when 
once hooked they are not easily lost. 
Though well formed and by no means 
sluggish, they are solitary and sedentary, 
as contrasted with the equally abundant 
predaceous family of snappers, for in¬ 
stance. 

Always lurking on the lookout for 
smaller fishes to come within striking dis¬ 
tance, and sometimes associated in con¬ 
siderable numbers at favorable localities, 
they do not range about, hunting in 
schools, like the snappers. 

The colors of this group are varied and 
sometimes extremely beautiful, in none 
more so than in the small Rock Hind 
(Color Plate, page 180), whose home is in 
the bright lights of the coral reef. But 


CURIOUS INHABITANTS OF THE GULF STREAM 


165 



AN OCTOPUS IN ONE OF THE MIAMI AQUARIUM TANKS 

The Octopus is a source of fascination to most people in spite of its repulsive appearance. The 
grotesque head is mounted on a somewhat oval body from which radiate eight arms usually united at the 
base by a membrane. The arms, or tentacles, are provided with rows of suckers with which to clasp 
and cling to its prey with uncanny strength and quickness. The Octopus has the faculty of instantly 
changing color before one’s very eyes, and is constantly doing strange and weird things, which always 
attract the attention of the passer-by. 


the plan of coloring is such as to lower, not 
raise, the visibility of the fish. Contrast, 
for instance, the color plans of the 
Rock Hind and the bizarre Rock Beauty. 

CHAMELEONS AMONG THE FISHES 

These groupers, rock fishes, and hinds, 
furthermore, have the power of under¬ 
going complete color changes almost in¬ 
stantaneously. The color tone becomes 
lighter or darker and the markings be¬ 
come bold or fade and disappear. Such 
color changes can be Seen to advantage 
in individuals kept in an aquarium. 
There can be no doubt that in the fishes’ 
natural environment they adapt it to the 
bottom it is swimming over, and, further, 
that inconspicuousness may aid in its 
getting a full meal at the expense of its 
smaller associates. 

There is a related fish which has a 
color pattern almost exactly like that of 
the Rock Hind, namely, the Spotted 
Hind. The principal technical difference 


between the two is that one has minute 
scales on its maxillary and the other has 
not—a characteristic about as obvious to 
the layman as what the fish is thinking 
about. The Spotted Hind’s squarish tail 
fin, with a broad, blackish border, alfords an 
amateurish, but simpler, way of telling it. 

The fish life of warm shores is one of 
contrasts. In contrast to the big-mouthed 
sea basses, there are species, usually slug¬ 
gish, which have very small mouths, de¬ 
pending for their subsistence on the great 
abundance of small sea animals found 
about tropical reefs and ledges, or sea¬ 
weeds. To capture such small creatures 
does not require great agility. 

The sort of life they lead has probably 
been taken up gradually, through long 
periods of time, and many of them have 
meanwhile acquired remarkable and 
sometimes quite unfishlike characters of 
form and structure. None is stranger 
than the little Sea Horses (Color Plate, 
page 178), with body encased in rings of 


166 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



HOW THE SWELL-FISH 
FRIGHTENS ITS 
ENEMIES 


Photograph by John Oliver La Gorce 

PROMINENT MEMBER OF THE NUMEROUS RAY FAMILY 

The Whip Ray, or Spotted Sting Ray, as he is also known, is now and 
then seen in the shallow waters adjacent to Miami. The ray uses its broad 
cephalic fins much as a bird its wings and seems to fly rather than swim 
through the water. It is beautifully marked with many golden-brown 
rings. It is not edible. 


bony mail, horse-shaped head set at right 
angles, and prehensile tail to grasp the 
seaweed where they are hiding, body 
floating upward erect in the water. 

' THE MALE SEA HORSE HAS AN 
INCUBATOR POUCH 

The male Sea Horse carries the eggs in 
a pouch situated under his tail, until they 
are hatched and the young large enough 
to fend for themselves. 

Sluggish small-mouthed species fre¬ 
quently have hard nipper-like teeth, as 
the small animals which they eat are 
many of them shelly. 

As it is difficult for them to get out of 


A somewhat related 
flat-sided Filefish 
scarcely swims about 
at all, but drifts with 
the tides, more or less 
head downward, and 
can be easily captured 
in the hand. It is so 
striped as to be readily 
overlooked, however, 
among the eel-grass 
which is drifting with 
it. 

The Swell-fishes 
have the power of 
suddenly inflating the 
body with water or 
air until they assume 
an approximately 
globular form several times the normal 
diameter, which must be disconcerting to 
any enemy about to seize one. The Por¬ 
cupine-fish, in addition to doing this, has 
the body everywhere covered with long, 
sharp spines which project in every di¬ 
rection like the quills of a Hedgehog. 
Many persons who are familiar with the 
inflated-skins of Swell-fishes and Porcu¬ 
pine-fish used by the Japanese as pic¬ 
turesque lanterns will be surprised to 
learn that both are common in local 
waters. 

The Trunk-fishes, instead of being pro¬ 
tected in this way, have the body en¬ 
cased in a bony shell, like a Turtle. In 


the way of larger pre¬ 
daceous fish, they are 
variously protected 
against attack, mostly 
being colored more or 
less in resemblance to 
their surroundings. 
The trigger-fishes have 
a stout dorsal spine 
which locks erect, as 
well as a very thick 
leathery hide which 
must be of some pro¬ 
tection. The gaudy 
colors of the Queen 
Trigger-fish (Color 
Plate, page 179) are 
an exception among 
such forms. 


CURIOUS INHABITANTS OF THE GULF STREAM 


167 



Photograph by E. R. Sanborn, New York Zoological Society 

A GIANT POSES 


One of the largest fishes of the warm seas is the Jewfish which frequently reaches 500 pounds in weight. 
The tendency of the lens in the eye of a fish to approach the shape of a sphere is clearly shown. The Jew- 
fish is sluggish but very strong. 


the East Indies there are rectangular 
species, but ours are all three-cornered, 
beechnut-shaped. They go by various 
names—Cuckold, Shellfish, and so forth, 
the Cowfish (Color Plate, page 179) being 
a species with two hornlike spines pro¬ 
jecting from its forehead. They are 
excellent eating, cooked in the shell like a 
Lobster. 

SOME FISH ARE RISKY DELICACIES 

The back muscles of the Swell-fishes 
are sometimes eaten, but make a risky 
delicacy, as there are well authenticated 
instances of severe poisoning from eating 
these fishes. The poison seems to be 


localized in the viscera and to permeate 
the rest of the fish after death. 

In some quarters of Japan Swell-fish 
is highly esteemed when prepared 
for the table with care, but there is a 
Japanese proverb to the effect that 
before eating Swell-fish one should have 
one’s last will and testament in good order. 

Poisoning resultant from eating cer¬ 
tain species of tropical fishes is a subject 
which will repay further study. In Cuba 
several kinds are reputed dangerous and 
their sale prohibited in the larger mar¬ 
kets. Among them are the Great Barra¬ 
cuda, Green Moray and certain species 





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170 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by E. R. Sanborn, New York Zoological Society 

SISTERS UNDER THE SEA 

The Porcupine fish above is an uncomfortable mouthful for any hungry 
undersea hunter, but when it inflates itself into the form of a large ball, 
its balloon shape and bristling spines, from which it takes its name, offer 
assuring means of defense against natural enemies. The Spanish Hogfish 
(below), sometimes called Lady-fish, is beautifully colored ana excellently 
flavored. 


of the Carangiidae, 
or crevally family. 
On the other hand, this 
same Barracuda is par¬ 
ticularly favored as a 
food-fish in Porto Rico, 
as it is known to sub¬ 
sist entirely on clean, 
live food. 

It is said in Cuba 
that by no means all 
the fishes of these 
species are poisonous, 
and that the smaller 
ones are safer. The 
symptoms of poison 
are sometimes alimen¬ 
tary disorders, some¬ 
times skin troubles. 
The cause is not 
known, but Mowbray, 
writing in the New 
York Zoological 
Society Bulletin, No¬ 
vember, 1916, presents 
a strong case in favor 
of the hypothesis that 
such tropical fish 
poisoning is in most 
cases due to improper 
marketing. He says: 
“It is probable that 
if, when caught, the 
fish were eviscerated 
and bled, a case of 
poisoning would be a 
rarity.” 

Bulletin No. I of 
the Madras (India) 
Fisheries Bureau,! 915, 
thus emphasizes the 
importance of prop¬ 
erly marketing fish in 
a tropical climate: “Of 
all general food, fish is 
most liable to taint and 
most poisonous when 
tainted. . . . Fish 
not kept alive must be 
cleaned and washed at 
sea and properly 
stowed. This brings 
them to shore with a 
much decreased 
chance of taint, even 
if several hours inter¬ 
vene.” 


CURIOUS INHABITANTS OF THE GULF STREAM 


171 



Photograph by L. L. Mowbray 

THE WHITE ARMED ANEMONE 

Sea-anemones, closely resembling beautiful and many-hued chrysanthemums, are found among the 
rocks in quiet waters along the Gulf shores. This low form of animal life feeds by arresting with its out¬ 
spread petal-like tentacles small particles of food floating by, which it then draws toward the central mouth. 
From a muscular base the anemone can move very slowly from place to place, one observation in the New 
York Aquarium showing a travel of forty-eight inches in the course of twenty-four hours. They have no 
food value for man, but are sometimes eaten by fish. 


As food-fishes, the snappers are perhaps 
the most important southern family. A 
snapper is an all-around, up-to-date fish, 
an evolutionary product of the keenest 
of all competition in the fish world, that 
at the tropical shore-line. 

THE WARY GRAY SNAPPER 
There is nothing peculiar or freakish 
about the snapper. He is just thoroughly 
successful and modern, active, adaptable, 
and clever—trim-formed, spiny-finned, 
keen-eyed, smooth-scaled, and strong¬ 
toothed. 


Almost anywhere one goes one can see 
little schools of the Gray Snapper through 
the clear tropical water, skirting the 
shore or the edge of the mangroves, on 
the lookout for small fry to satisfy their 
appetites, and at the same time with a 
weather eye out for possible danger. It 
would seem a simple matter to catch one 
on hook and line, but no fish is warier 
about being thus ensnared. 

Several species of snappers are almost 
equally abundant, the Muttonfish and the 




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172 




CURIOUS INHABITANTS OF THE GULF STREAM 


173 


Red Snapper, which is taken in com¬ 
paratively deep water, being perhaps the 
most important commercially. 

The excellence of the Red Snapper is 
widely known, and quantities of this fish 
are shipped to distant northern markets. 
For baking, a fine large one has few 
equals. Bright red color in fishes has 
often a peculiar significance, which will 
be spoken of later. 

Though not exactly a snapper, the ex¬ 
cellent table-fish known as the Yellow 
Tail (Color Plate, page i8i) belongs to 
the snapper family. It is somewhat more 
elongated than the true snappers, with 
lines more graceful, and its tail-fin is 
more deeply forked. One sees immedi¬ 
ately that it is a freer, swifter swimmer, 
navigating wider stretches of more open 
water. 

WHY SWIFT SWIMMING FISH HAVE 
FORKED TAILS 

Most marine animals which swim, es¬ 
pecially swiftly and continuously, have 
a forked tail-fin. This shape of tail 
avoids the space immediately behind the 
axis of the body where the stream-lines 
following the sides (of a moving fish) 
converge. A rounded or pointed tail which 
would occupy such area would be a drag. 

Whales and Porpoises, though they 
move the tail up and down instead of 
from side to side, have a forked tail-fin, 
only it lies in a horizontal instead of a 
vertical plane. The wide ranging mem¬ 
bers of the mackerel family and other 
more or less related marine fishes have a 
forked tail-fin set on a firm, narrow base; 
and the freest swimming sharks (Mack¬ 
erel sharks and the Man-eater) have ac¬ 
quired a tail of the same shape, though 
the ordinary shark tail is weak and un- 
symmetrical. 

Fresh-water minnows almost invari¬ 
ably have a forked tail-fin, waters which 
they have to traverse being considerable 
in relation to the small size of the fishes 
themselves. 

In the blues and greens of the waters 
through which it swims, the Yellow Tail’s 
bright yellow tail probably makes a shin¬ 
ing mark, though its colors otherwise are 
well calculated to give it a low visibility. 
Are we to conclude from this that there 
are no larger fishes which prey on it? No; 
there pretty surely are such fishes, though 
it may well be so swift as to escape many. 


DEEP SWIMMING FISH ARE OFTEN RED 
IN COLOR 

As regards concealment, having a yel¬ 
low tail must be a disadvantage to it, 
and is a character which would doubtless 
have been lost in the keen competition of 
the tropical waters where it lives, were 
there not, on the other hand, some com¬ 
pensating advantage. It may be a badge 
of identification, useful to a school in 
keeping together. 

It has been previously mentioned that 
the Red Snapper comes from deeper 
water than other common snappers. 
There is a tendency for fishes which 
swim deep down under the blue or green 
sea and yet within the range of surface 
light penetration to be red in color. A 
great many are not, to be sure, but a 
larger proportion are red here than else¬ 
where, frequently a clear bright striking 
red all over. 

It seems almost a pity that the light 
in which they live is so green that the 
color, red, must appear an intangible 
neutral gray! Perhaps it gives them a 
useful inconspicuousness down there, or 
perhaps it absorbs a maximum amount 
of the dim, strongly blue-green sunlight, 
which is in some way beneficial. 

One of the commonest species of the 
surface reefs, the Squirrel Fish (Color 
Plate, page 175), has a regular, bright, 
*‘deep-water” red color. But the mystery 
of how it comes to such a color is easily 
explained, for it has similar relatives living 
deeper down. Evidently the Squirrel Fish 
has recently come up in the fish world, 
and its big eyes indicate, that it has 
not yet adjusted itself to the bright light 
of the surface sun, but is more or less 
nocturnal. 

The Gulf Stream runs so close to the 
coast of Florida that, when the wind is 
right, quantities of the drifting yellow 
gulf-weed it carries are washed ashore 
and into the bays. A variety of fishes 
hide in and about this weed. ■ 

One of the commonest and perhaps the 
most interesting, namely, the Mouse Fish, 
spends its entire life in the drifting sar- 
gassum. Colored in wonderful mimicry 
of this habitat, its shape also, grotesquely 
irregular, covered with leaf-like processes 
or flakes, heightens the resemblance, so 
as to make it well nigh invisible. This 
protection against larger fish which might 
disturb it probably also serves the pur- 


174 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 


pose of camouflage to enable it to ap¬ 
proach and capture smaller fish, crabs, 
and shrimps. 

THE PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR HAS A 
FAITHFUL COMPANION FISH 

The Mouse Fish,, for its size, has a 
large mouth and appetite in proportion. 
Many other species hide in the weed 
when young and, as a rule, have colors 
to match at that time of life, though 
later they may be quite different. 

The rainbow-tinted pink, blue, or pur¬ 
ple bubble-like floats of the Portuguese 
Man-of-war (Color Plate, page 178) drift 
at the surface over all tropical oceans and 
are sometimes washed in close to the shore 
in numbers. With them comes an inter¬ 
esting companion, a very small and 
beautiful colored fish called Nomeus^ 
which never strays far from the tentacles 
which stream below the Man-of-war. 
The Nomeus decoys little fishes into his 
protector’s trailing tentacles which sting 
and stun them and thus provide food for 
both. 

When traveling by steamer along the 
Florida coast the writer has watched for 
NomeuSy and from where he stood on 
deck has seen one and sometimes more 
individuals lying suspended in the clear 
water, their blackish ventral fins con¬ 
spicuously spread, always within a 
short distance of a Man-of-war, floating 
above. 

WHEN THE FLYING-FISHES PLAY 

Comparatively few kinds of fishes are 
abundant “off-sounding,” away from the 
influence of the shore-line, and these may 
be divided rather sharply into the hunters 
and the hunted. Mouse Fish and No- 
meus^ belonging to the latter class—the 
one hides, the other lives under the pro¬ 
tection of a powerful companion. 

Flying-fishes, which are abundant, have 
an even more interesting method of es¬ 
caping their enemies, leaping above the 
surface and, with favorable wind condi¬ 
tions, shooting through the air for per¬ 
haps as much as an eighth of a mile, sup¬ 
ported by their long, stiflF breast-fins, 
widely spread at right angles to the body. 
When there is a whole-sail breeze blow¬ 
ing, they seem to fly also for sport. 

A flock of little Flying-fishes no bigger 
than herring, all in the air at once, gleam¬ 
ing blue and white silver in the sun, is 


one of the most beautiful sights of a 
tropical sea. The very thought of it 
takes one back to the broad blue expanse 
of trade-wind ocean, warm decks lurch¬ 
ing under foot, spray singing through 
the shrouds, squawking tropic birds 
and bellying square-sails which swing 
against a background of fleecy cloud 
and sky. 

In spite of their agility. Flying-fishes 
form the chief food of the little schools 
of Oceanic Bonitos, and of the Dolphins, 
swiftest, most graceful, and most highly 
colored of marine fishes, which prowl 
over the high seas. 

THE PRIMEVAL SHARK IS STILL WITH US 

Ages before modern fishes, of which 
we now find such countless variety in 
tropical seas, had been evolved in the 
slow process of evolution, there were 
sharks which differed comparatively little 
from those of the present day. Inter¬ 
mediate forms have become antiquated 
and dropped out, but the primeval shark 
(Color Plate, page 180) is still with us. 
Especially in the tropics they occur in 
great abundance. 

Prowling singly along the edges of the 
reefs, over the shallow flats, or through 
oflF-shore stretches of open water, they 
hunt largely by sense of smell, and con¬ 
gregate in numbers wherever food is 
abundant. 

When a whale is being cut up at sea 
it is astonishing how quickly the slender 
offshore Blue Sharks gather to the feast; 
it would almost seem from nowhere. 

By far the most abundant sharks nu¬ 
merically are the ground sharks {Car- 
charhinus). There is probably no trop¬ 
ical or temperate coast-line where one or 
more species of this genus do not enter 
the bays and inshore water at the proper 
season to give birth to their young. 

SHARKS PROPAGATE UNLIKE MOST 
OTHER FISHES 

Though relics of a bygone age, as far 
as bodily structure is concerned, sharks, 
of all fishes, have the most highly devel¬ 
oped reproductive system. Some lay a 
few large eggs, each one protected by a 
horny shell, but for the most part the egg 
stage is passed through within the body 
of the parent fish, and the young are born 
well grown and able to fend for them¬ 
selves. 


CURIOUS INHABITANTS OF THE GULF STREAM 



THE SQUIRREL FISH OR SOLDATO {Holocentrus ascensionis) 

These bright hued habitants of the tropical seas are to be found in the waters surrounding the Bermudas, 
Florida, the West Indies, St. Helena and Ascension Island. They reach a length of two feet, and are considered 
a good food fish. 





THE PORK FISH {Anisotremus virginicus) 

This important food fish, found from Florida to Brazil, reaches a length of fifteen inches, and lives in large 
numbers about coral heads and reefs. It is easily trapped by market fishermen. 


175 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



FOUR RESPLENDENT TYPES OF ANGEL-FISH 


The Blue Angel-Fish {Angelichthys isabelita), shown at the lower left, feeds chiefly on crustaceans, and lives 
among the coral reefs of the Florida Keys and the Bermudas. The Black Angel-Fish {Pomacanthus arcuatus)^ 
shown at the upper right, is found from New Jersey, through the waters of the West Indies and as far south as 
Bahia, Brazil. It is one of the most beautiful of reef dwellers. The French Angel-Fish {Pomacanthus paru)^ 
shown at the lower right, is found from Florida to Bahia, and reaches a foot or more in length, but is not considered 
a good food fish. The Rock Beauty {Holacanthus tricolor)^ upper figure, is rarely found in Florida waters, but 
swims as far south as Bahia. It lives in the deeper parts of coral reefs, and is most difficult to trap. 



THE SPADE FISH IS ALSO KNOWN AS THE WHITE ANGEL {Chaetodipterus faber) 

This excellent food fish, which attains a length of from two to three feet, is caught by hook from Cape Cod 
to Rio de Janeiro. It is especially abundant on our South Atlantic Coast. 


176 





CURIOUS INHABITANTS OF THE GULF STREAM 



THE FOUR-EYED FISH {Chaetodon capistratus) AND BUTTERFLY FISH {Chaetodon ocellatus) 

The Four-Eyed Fish, shown in the left top corner, is a parasite hunter. It even goes into the mouths of 
larger fishes which remain perfectly still while the little fellow hunts for its prey. The Butterfly Fish is one 
of the most conspicuous of reef dwellers. Both species are found in Florida and West Indian waters. 



THE GREEN MORAY {LycodontisJunebris) 


This largest of eels, which sometimes reaches a length of eleven feet, is an excellent food fish. It is 
found in tropical seas from Bermuda and the Florida Keys to Rio de Janeiro, and from the Gulf of California 
to Panama and in the East Indies. 


177 



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179 






THE BOOK OF FISHES 



THE ROCK HIND {Epinephelus adscensionis) 

This spotted beauty inhabits tropical American waters from Bermuda to Brazil, and is often encountered 
on the east coast of Florida. It lives in rocky places, and is highly esteemed as a food fish. It reaches two 
feet in length. 



THE SHARK SUCKER {Echeneis naucrates) 

This curious inhabitant of warm seas attaches itself by means of a suction disk to sharks, turtles and 
other large denizens of the deep. On the African coast it is used by natives to capture turtles. The fisher¬ 
man attaches a cord to the shark sucker’s tail, and allows it to s\/im among the turtles. When it has attached 
itself to one, the turtle is quickly hauled in. 


180 











CURIOUS INHABITANTS OF THE GULF STREAM 





THE YELLOW TAIL {Ocyurus chrysurus) 

This excellent food fish, reaching a length of three feet, is one of the gamiest of the snapper tribe. It is 
found in the waters off the coast of Bermuda, Florida, and the West Indies, as far south as Brazil. 



THE BLUE STRIPED GRUNT {Haemulon sciurus) 

This food fish reaches a foot in length and lives about rocky shores from the Bermudas as far south as 

Brazil. It feeds on worms and crustaceans. 


181 






THE BOOK OF FISHES 



THE SERGEANT MAJOR OR COW PILOT {abudefduf saxatilis) 

As its name, saxatilis, implies, this inhabitant of tropical American waters lives among the rocks. It attains 

a length of six inches and is not used for food. 



THE RAINBOW PARROT-FISH {Pseudoscarus guacamaid) 


Weighing as much as sixty pounds, the Rainbow Parrot-fish is the largest of its family. The flesh is soft 
but of very good flavor. It is found from the Florida Keys to Rio de Janeiro, and lives on mollusks, worms, 
and several species of algae. 


182 





CURIOUS INHABITANTS OF THE GULF STREAM 


183 


The Black-tip Shark {Carcharhinus 
limbatus) is a small species of ground 
shark, females of which are taken with 
young in the Bay of Florida in April. 
They are frequently hooked by tarpon 
fishermen, who erroneously call them 
“mackerel shark,” and put up a spirited 
fight. They are usually between five and 
five and a half feet in length, and the 
young, about three to six in number, 
are two feet long, or a little less, when 
born. 

We have data concerning another 
ground shark, Carcharhinus milberti^ the 
Brown Shark, which gives birth to its 
young in Great South Bay, New York, in 
midsummer. The mother sharks are a 
little larger—six or seven feet—the 
young, however, of about the same size, 
but more of them, eight to eleven having 
been recorded for this species. Some 
kinds of sharks which grow much larger 
have a proportionately larger number of 
young. 

While evolution has been molding other 
more modern fishes into a great variety 
of forms to fit every niche in the infi¬ 
nitely varied but unchanging environ¬ 
ment of tropical seas, the shark has al¬ 
ways been much as we find him today. 

A FISH THAT UTILIZES A SHARK AS A 
TAXI 

It is not surprising, therefore, that 
there is a fish which owes its very re¬ 
markable structure and habits to the 
presence of sharks. This is the slender 
Shark Sucker (Color Plate, page i8o), 
which has the anterior portion of its body 
horizontally flattened, and a remarkable 
oval structure, with movable slats like 
those of a blind, on the top of its head. 
With this apparatus it attaches itself 
firmly at will to the shark’s broad side 
and thus as a “dead-head” passenger, is 
transported through long stretches of 
ocean without any effort on its own part. 

The Shark Sucker is boldly and very 
beautifully striped with black and white, 
but can change its color almost instantly 
to a dull, uniform gray matching the side 
of the shark to which it is clinging. It 
sometimes attaches itself also to other 
large fishes, such as the Tarpon, or to 
turtles. 

A related species, the true Remora, is 
found clinging to those sharks which 
swim through the high seas far from 


shore. A third is found clinging about 
the gills of Spearfish or Marlin Swordfish, 
as they are called by California anglers. 
A fourth, with very large and strong 
sucking disk, has been found attached to 
whales. 

All of these may, loosely speaking, be 
called Remoras. They are sometimes 
erroneously spoken of as “Pilot-fish,” for 
the Pilot-fish is an entirely different 
small species related to the Amber Jack, 
which swims in front of or beside sea¬ 
going sharks and is vertically banded 
with black. 

Among the fishes of the world the 
Remoras occupy the position of a genus 
with unknown ancestry. There is noth¬ 
ing else like them, and to what manner 
of fishes they may be related is one of 
the mysteries of old ocean. 

Fish life of the shallow pools so often 
found along a rocky shore at low tide 
will repay careful study. Such a pool 
may be a few yards long, with a very 
irregular outline, full of nooks and cran¬ 
nies, and a few square feet of sand cov¬ 
ering its lowest point. 

Here the young of several types of 
fishes act out in miniature the drama 
which their elders are playing on the 
reef. Only the villains of the play, the 
larger predaceous fishes, are absent, at 
least for the present, until the returning 
flood inundates the isolated pool to make 
it once more a part of the big salt water, 
and we retreat up the beach. 

The stage setting is extremely simple: 
the jagged blackish bottom of the pool, 
small area of gray-white sand, a little 
patch of brownish seaweed in one place, 
either growing there or drifted in at the 
last high water. From a distance half a 
dozen small fishes are visible, swimming 
actively about. 

Nearer view shows them to consist of 
two or three Sergeant Majors, instantly 
recognized by the black and yellow 
uniform in vertical stripes; a couple of 
Beau Gregorys, with bright blue heads 
and yellow tails separated by a slanting 
line of demarcation, and a young Wrasse 
striped lengthwise with black on a pale 
ground. 

THE WRASSE CHANGES ITS COLOR 
INSTANTLY 

If one attempt to catch a fish of either 
of the former species, it displays great 


184 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



THE AQUARIUM, MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA 

Located on the very Gulf Stream itself, the exhibit of fishes of the warm sea to be seen within the 
Miami Aquarium are unexcelled in variety and beauty of color anywhere in the world. The Aquarium 
gardens contain numerous varieties of beautiful palms and subtropical flora. 


alertness and agility, dodging about the 
many projections and irregularities of 
rock. But now we have the Wrasse 
cornered and believe we have it in an in¬ 
stant, when suddenly it has disappeared. 

Surely it did not dodge past and make 
good its escape in that way. Where can 
it be? Two or three minutes of careful 
scrutiny are rewarded. There it is, mo¬ 
tionless, squeezed into a crevice of the 
side of the pool just large enough to hold it. 

Swimming actively about, it was 
scarcely less conspicuous than the Ser¬ 
geant Majors, but it has now, further¬ 
more, changed color, so as to have a very 
low visibility in its sheltered nook. Here 
we have an illustration in detail of how 
various theoretical types of coloring work 
out. While swimming about with them 
the Wrasse had a conspicuous immunity 
pattern like the Sergeant Majors; now, 
in the twinkling of an eye, it is a con- 
cealingly colored fish. 

THE SAND FLOUNDER DEFIES DETECTION 

We have been speaking of fishes which 
no one will hesitate to admit are conceal- 
ingly colored; but, lying in plain view on 


the sand, there is a little pale-colored 
Sand Flounder so exceedingly incon¬ 
spicuous that it is unlikely that we shall 
see it unless the water is drawn out of 
the pool and its inhabitants raked into 
our collecting bottles. 

NOISY FISHES OF THE DEEP 

One thinks of fishes as leading a life 
of perpetual silence down there under 
the waters. This generalization is not 
in all cases true, however. Lying an¬ 
chored in a small boat at night in Florida 
waters, one may sometimes hear a school 
of Sea-drum go swimming by below. 
“Wop, wop, wop,” they seem to say. 
Then there is the little Trumpet-fish, so 
called, whose identity is open to question, 
technically speaking, that will at times 
lurk under the boat and intrigue you with 
its elfin tooting. 

Many species utter croaking or grunt¬ 
ing sounds when caught, the various 
species of Grunts owing their name to 
this habit. 

Grunts are fish somewhat resembling 
snappers in appearance and to a certain 
extent in habit, but smaller and less vig- 


CURIOUS INHABITANTS OF THE GULF STREAM 


185 



Photograph from Col. William H. Edwards 


AN ARMFULL OF AMBERJACK 

The Amber fish is a determined fighter, excellent as to food value and in the Aquarium tank lives well 
and is active. Specimens have been taken weighing up to 100 pounds. 


orous. They are variously and artistically 
colored in grays, blues, and yellows. The 
Blue-striped or Yellow Grunt (Color 
Plate, page i8i) is yellow, with blue 
length-wise stripes. The Common Grunt 
has many narrow stripes of deep, clear 
blue on the head, the scales of the shoulder 
region enlarged and conspicuous, bronze 


in color, with grayish borders. The 
French Grunt is light bluish gray, with 
broad, undulating, irregular stripes of 
yellow; and there are many other varieties. 

Grunts have bright red or orange color 
at the base of the jaws and inside the 
large mouth. The color is not visible 
when the mouth is closed. 






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186 





Devil-Fishing in the Gulf Stream 

By JOHN OLIVER LA GORGE 

Associate Editor National Geographic iSAaga^ine 


W HAT tne rolling prairie of the 
Far West was to the buffalo in 
the olden days, when it roamed 
in countless thousands to and fro in 
search of new pastures and salt, the ever- 
rolling Gulf Stream—that mighty, warm 
river which parallels the east coast of 
Florida—is to the fish legions of our semi- 
tropical seas. 

How many fishermen realize that there 
are found in the Atlantic Ocean offshore 
between Miami and Key West nearly 600 
varieties of fish—an amazing total which 
constitutes one-fifth of the entire fauna 
of the American Continent north of Pan¬ 
ama! 

UNRELATED MONSTERS OF THE DEEP 

When one starts in to tell of the amaz¬ 
ing variety of undersea life along the 
Florida east coast, it is difficult to decide 
where to begin and end, for it is an inex¬ 
haustible subject. Such being the case, I 
will not attempt a survey of it now, but 
will confine myself to the experience of 
our party in hunting and capturing a 
Devil-fish, said to be the largest specimen 
taken in American waters in twenty years. 

In the general mind the Devil-fish and 
the Octopus are frequently confused, 
whereas they belong to entirely different 
fish families, and the only physical re¬ 
semblance between these two gentry lies 
in the fact that they both live in the same 
waters. The Devil-fish, or Manta biros- 
tris of science, belongs to the giant ray 
family—a huge batlike creature which 
uses its body fins as a bird does its wings 
in flying, with a waving, undulating mo¬ 
tion, which propels it along beneath the 
water at remarkable speed. 

Aside from its immense wing-spread, 
the outstanding feature of the Devil-fish, 
and the one from which it derives its 
Satanic name, are the lobes, or, as they 
are sometimes termed, cephalic fins, 
which extend outward and upward from 
each side of its flat head like curling horns. 

In the adult fish the head fins are from 
three to four feet in length and about six 


inches wide. Nature has fashioned them 
of a leathery muscle tissue which spells 
strength in every ounce. 

When the giant ray dashes into a school 
of fish, these head fins are of great assist¬ 
ance in obtaining food, for, like the arms 
of a boxer, they are in constant motion, 
whirling about and sweeping its living 
prey into the yard-wide mouth with al¬ 
most lightning speed, as it hurls its great 
body about in its natural element. 

The remarkable strength and twisting 
movements of the so-called horns are re¬ 
sponsible for many of the allegations 
lodged against this fish as a menace to 
mankind, whereas, unless attacked and 
in panic, the huge sea-bat hurts no one. 

As a matter of fact, however, there are 
a number of authentic reports of the 
Devil-fish’s running foul of a ship’s an¬ 
chor chain. True to instinct, it clasps the 
chain tight by wrapping its tenacula 
horns or feelers about it, applies its tre¬ 
mendous strength, lifts the heavy anchor 
as if it were a feather, and starts to sea 
with the anchor, chain, and ship, to the 
amazement and terror of the crew, who 
cannot believe their very eyes, as their 
vessel moves onward at a fast pace with¬ 
out a sail set or an engine’s turning over, 
when, to all appearances, a moment be¬ 
fore their vessel was moored to the ocean 
floor. 

THE OLD MAN OF THE SEA 

The Octopus (Color Plate, page 156), 
on the other hand, although sometimes 
termed “Devil-fish,” is of another family 
entirely, an invertebrate, known to science 
as the typical genus of Cephalopods, or, 
in plain words, the highest class of 
mollusca, in which squids, cuttle-fish, 
and octopi are grouped. In Pacific waters 
the Giant Octopus, technically known as 
Octopus punctatuSy grows to an immense 
size; indeed, captured specimens have 
measured a radial spread of 20 to 30 
feet. 

In appearance the Octopus is most re¬ 
pulsive, having a large, ugly head, a fierce- 


188 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by Charles H. Thompson 


AMBER JACK, A FINNY FIGHTER 

Bahama natives call the Amber Jack the “family feeder” for it grows so large in the warm seas one wi 

furnish food for a household. 




DEVIL-FISHING IN THE GULF STREAM 


189 


looking mouth, armed with a pair of pow¬ 
erful horny jaws, shaped much like a 
parrot’s beak, atopped with two diaboli¬ 
cal eyes set close together, which are posi¬ 
tively capable of sending forth a demo¬ 
niac glare when the creature is angered. 
The grotesque head is mounted on a some¬ 
what oval body, from which radiate eight 
arms, usually united at the body base by a 
membrane. The arms or tentacles are 
provided with rows of suckers, with 
which it clasps and clings to its prey with 
uncanny strength and quickness. 

As a rule, it will not give battle to man 
unless angered or injured, but when chal¬ 
lenged will fight to the last, doing its best 
to pull the object of its wrath beneath the 
surface of the waters. 

THE START FOR THE HUNTING 
GROUNDS 

From the Florida reef the run' across 
the Gulf Stream to the nearest islands of 
the Bahamas is a matter of about 50 miles. 
We started from Miami Beach at noon, 
guests of James A. Allison, on board his 
sea-going motor yacht LApache^ with a 
25-foot motor-driven fishing boat bobbing 
along behind in tow. 

In the party of fishermen were Mr. 
Allison, Captain Charles H. Thompson, 
of Miami, the internationally known au¬ 
thority on the fish of the east coast of 
Florida; Commodore Charles W. Kotcher, 
A. G. Batchelder, and the writer, to¬ 
gether with Captain Peterson and the 
crew of the UApache. 

Assisted by the northeastward pressure 
of the ever-moving Gulf Stream, we 
made splendid progress, and that evening 
cast anchor behind Bimini, a tiny isle 
which rests like a jeweled feather on a 
summer sea, the westernmost outrider of 
the Lower Bahama group. Bimini is a 
quaint little coral dot a few miles long 
and a quarter of a mile wide, quite cov¬ 
ered with clusters of coconut palms and 
tropical plants, its tallest headland rising 
but a few feet above the surface of the 
old Atlantic—an out-of-the-world spot 
then peopled by a few score of Bahama 
negroes, who eke out a precarious exist¬ 
ence by fishing, gathering shells, and, in a 
small way, cultivating sisal, the fibrous 
plant from which hemp rope is made. 

Approaching the island, the ocean bot¬ 
tom for miles offshore is carpeted with 
snow-white sand, and so clear is the 


water that there is no difficulty in study¬ 
ing the vast marine gardens 30 to 50 feet 
below the surface. 

Due to the white sand beneath the sea 
and the glorious blue of the sky, with the 
ever-changing cloud effects overhead, the 
bewildering gradations of color to be 
seen in these waters challenge descrip¬ 
tion and fill the heart of the artist with 
despair, although he paint with the in¬ 
spired brush of genius. 

OVERSEAS CEREMONY 

The Bahamas being colonies of Great 
Britain, of course her authority extends 
even to this little dot. Therefore, Bimini 
boasts a port officer—an English gen¬ 
tleman, who also serves as the Crown 
Commissioner, Police Magistrate, Cus¬ 
toms Collector, and Consular Official 
for examination of passports, as well 
as being physician and school teacher 
to the island’s inhabitants. In short, he 
is the Twentieth Century Pooh Bah, 
who, with much courtesy and dignity, 
meets the foreign craft when it drops 
anchor upon arrival, inspects all qualify¬ 
ing documents, then sadly waves adieu 
from the beach when the visitor sails 
away. 

Up to the day of our arrival, there 
hadn’t been a piece of fresh beef or a bit 
of butter on the table of the Crown’s 
Representative for nine months, much 
less that of a single one of Bimini’s 
humbler inhabitants, for the isle is more 
than a hundred miles from Nassau, and 
even the mail-boat was conspicuous by 
its absence during the period of the Eu¬ 
ropean war, when enemy submarines 
were in South Atlantic waters. 

THE SEA SUPPLIES THE LARDER 

So it is that the sea furnishes food for 
the Biminites, supplemented by a few 
vegetables, ffour, and salt meats, when 
they can get supplies from Nassau. 
Conch, the marine animal which inhabits 
the beautiful spiral shell, so fashionable 
as a parlor ornament a generation ago, 
is the chief article of food, and the na¬ 
tives consume thousands of them each 
year; indeed, it can be considered their 
main article of food. 

After we had received and returned 
the official call of the Crown’s Repre¬ 
sentative, we had visitations alongside 
from several shore boats, manned by 





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190 




















DEVIL-FISHING IN THE GULF STREAM 


191 


dusky-hued merchants, each tradesman 
clad, on an average, in one and a half 
garments, who, with a happy grin and a 
hungry look, offered for sale varieties of 
sponges, brilliantly colored conch shells, 
sea-beans, and tortoise shell, the last- 
named article being obtained from the 
Hawksbill Turtle, which is quite plentiful 
in these waters. 

THE LURE OF THE TROPICAL NIGHT 

It was like pulling teeth to go below 
and leave the wondrous beauty of the 
tropical night, with the soft, cool touch 
of the ever-blowing trade wind, the 
shadowy grace of the giant coconut palms 
swaying and whispering on the near-by 
beach in the moonlight, while the surf, 
grounding upon the coral strand on the 
outer side of the isle, lulled us with its 
crooning obligato. 

But the wiser heads spoke of the need 
of a good night’s rest to prepare for the 
battle royal which we hoped was in the 
offing, and so we regretfully went below 
and to dreamland instead of having a try 
at the Tarpon which we could hear jump¬ 
ing and rolling on the surface, like playful 
puppies, only a few hundred yards astern. 

At sunrise the next morning all hands 
were up and ready for the fray. The 
chef soon had a hot breakfast served, 
after which we piled aboard our motor- 
driven fishing boat, upon which our rods, 
lines, and harpoons had been made ready 
the night before. 

Making a course out through the 
island channel to sea, all excepting 
the steersman hung over the side to 
enjoy the amazing sights below in the 
deep ocean pools. One of us would ex¬ 
citedly point to a squad of six or eight 
big Tarpon lazily wallowing about far be¬ 
low—lords of their element, unafraid; 
therefore ready to give battle to anything 
except, perhaps, a Tiger Shark. 

Another startled angler would call from 
the other side that a lo-foot Hammer¬ 
head or a Nurse Shark was rolling an eye 
at him from the ocean floor, while still 
another inland fisherman wanted to jump 
down among a school, numbering pos¬ 
sibly ten thousand large and small Man¬ 
grove Snappers, busily parading up and 
down a long stretch of coral shelf on the 
bottom, which afforded them instant hid¬ 
ing places in case of the sudden appear¬ 
ance of hungry enemies. 


Passing out over the entrance bar, we 
set a course for the open sea, and soon all 
hands were scanning the pulsing bosom 
of the Gulf Stream for big game, like the 
crew of a submarine destroyer peeling 
their eyes for a periscope in the danger 
zone. 

Strange as it may seem, the noise of a 
motor boat does not appear to make the 
fish of the warm seas apprehend danger. I f 
they are attracted by the bait or are not 
disturbed by the approach of a natural 
enemy below water, one can not only 
get very close to them, but has little 
difficulty in keeping the big fish in sight, 
once they are located and something of 
their habits known. 

After a while Captain Thompson called 
our attention in his quiet way to a long, 
dark shadow not far below the surface 
a couple of boat-lengths away, and the 
boat was turned toward the first sign of 
our quarry, which he said was a “Herring- 
Hog,” a species of porpoise. It proved to 
be an adult about eight feet long, weigh¬ 
ing around four hundred pounds, and as 
this species destroys great quantities of 
foodfish, we went for it. 

Reaching the proper position to strike,* 
a hand harpoon was thrown, found its 
mark, and away the Herring-Hog went at 
a fast clip, the line fairly smoking from 
the barrel. And soon we were being 
towed along—a strange sensation to the 
novice. One of the less experienced fisher¬ 
men of the party was given the harpoon 
line with instructions to bring the big 
fellow alongside forthwith, and further 
ordered above all to “keep his head up,” 
the rest of us sitting back to enjoy his 
attempts to obey. 

THE REAL BUSINESS OF THE DAY 

About twenty minutes after the strike 
and while yet the Herring-Hog was demon¬ 
strating no signs of tiring, although this 
could not be said of the perspiring fisher¬ 
man into whose care he had been given, 
a considerable disturbance was observed 
on the surface of the water about a quar¬ 
ter of a mile away, and it was judged to 
be either a leopard shark at kill or a battle 
royal between two big denizens of the 
deep. Anything can be expected in these 
waters! 

It was our business, however, to have 
ring-side seats at this battle, whatever it 
was. So all hands took hold of the Her 


192 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by John Oliver La Gorce 

GETTING THE FISH ASHORE AFTER IT HAD BEEN PARTIALLY DISMEMBERED 

It took a long while and much effort to get the Devil-fish ashore at Bimini so that the hide and cartilage 

structure could be preserved for mounting. 





DEVIL-FISHING IN THE GULF STREAM 


193 


ring-Hog line and, reversing the engine, 
which was not very sportsmanlike, but 
decidedly effective in checking it, we 
brought him alongside without further 
loss of time; then turned our attention to 
the new mystery now close at hand. 

We were all excited at the thought of 
getting a harpoon into a big Leopard 
Shark, which will fight any and everything 
that swims, and, according to some deep- 
sea fishermen, is really the only member 
of the shark family of whom man need 
be afraid while in the water. 

But the reader can imagine how our 
interest was increased when all at once 
Captain Thompson, who, having uncanny 
eyesight plus long experience with sub¬ 
sea life, suddenly exclaimed: “Stand by, 
men; it’s the biggest Devil-fish I have ever 
seen!” 

LIKE A HUGE FLAPPING BIRD 

As we drew near it seemed to me that 
the entire bottom of the ocean in that 
area was suddenly dark and slowly mov¬ 
ing off, and I discerned in the translu¬ 
cent depths a gigantic shadow which had 
the appearance of a huge bird flapping 
its wings and swinging its long, thin tail 
from side to side, as it flew slowly along. 

While we were coming up within strik¬ 
ing radius of the fish, which was evi¬ 
dently devouring something it had killed 
and was paying no attention to anything 
else, our harpoon lines, used in dispatching 
the Herring-Hog, had been straightened 
out and put in readiness for the combat 
which was to come. 

As soon as we came near enough. Cap¬ 
tain Thompson let fly with his heaviest 
harpoon, and then, as the little boy said 
when he dropped the cat into the pail of 
stewed tomatoes, “the fun began.” 

I am sure that none of us was ready 
for what followed. The Devil-fish rose 
as though hurled upward by a submarine 
explosion. One of its great bat-like 
fins broke above the surface, sending 
gallons of water over us and splintering 
the harpoon pole against the boat’s side 
as if it had been a match stem; then its 
lo-foot pectoral wing struck the water 
with a terrific impact, making a noise 
which could have been heard several 
miles away. 

For a moment the monster seemed be¬ 
wildered, and that lost moment cost him 
dear, for it enabled us to throw another 


harpoon, which struck deep into its body 
near the spine. Away it started to sea, 
taking our harpoon line with it, at a pace 
which made us apprehensive as to its length, 
although a moment before, we thought 
there was a wide margin for safety. Grad¬ 
ually all hands put their weight against 
the line, and as the boat was by this time 
moving properly on an even keel, we took 
a wrap around a bow cleat and started 
seaward—giant fish, boat, and crew! 

Every once in a while the Devil¬ 
fish would hurl itself several feet out 
of the water, and its huge body would 
come down with a crash like the ex¬ 
plosion of a 42-centimeter shell! More¬ 
over, each time it broke the surface it 
looked larger than before. Now and 
then it would sound for deep water in an 
effort to shake us off, and several times it 
went down so far that Thompson stood by 
with a hatchet to cut the lines at the last 
moment, in the event the bow should be 
drawn completely under water, which came 
perilously near happening more than once. 

All of a sudden the lines slackened, and 
we frantically hauled in as the monster 
turned and dashed toward the boat, com¬ 
ing up almost, but not quite, under our 
craft, its gigantic bulk lifting one side of 
the heavy launch well out of water and 
giving us a pretty stiff scare. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

With his usual skill and presence of 
mind, however. Captain Thompson let 
drive another harpoon he had at hand, 
which found lodgment in the Devil-fish’s 
head, and away it dashed again. With 
two harpoon lines, one in each side of the 
body, we were actually able to drive the 
monster as one would a runaway horse, 
swerving it toward the distant shore of 
Bimini and into more shallow water by 
the process of pulling first on one line 
and then on the other, which course was 
a little too much for the fish to resist. 
Meanwhile time was flying apace. 

By this time the Devil-fish had towed 
us for about ten miles, and although it 
was losing much blood, it was still going 
strong; so our next experiment was to 
throw out and let drag our anchor in 
order that this maneuver might further 
impede its progress. But this expedient 
made little difference to the giant, for it 
continued to pull us along as if our heavy 
craft were but a birch canoe. 


194 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 


After an hour or so, however, during 
which the Devil-fish alternated between 
trying to pull the bow under water and 
suddenly turning and endeavoring to come 
up under us, the anchor began to take 
hold better, and our giant was becoming a 
little more amenable to reason, so that a 
number of times we were able to haul in 
slack, rearrange our lines, and eventually 
to approach within 20 or 30 feet, as it 
labored along with its great batlike fins, 
a little less powerful in stroke and some¬ 
what slower, all of its body in plain 
sight, five or six feet below the surface of 
the water. 

WEIGHED MORE THAN 3OOO POUNDS 

It was at this point that Mr. Allison 
secured the pictures, which we have every 
reason to believe are the first and only 
actual photographs of a giant Devil-fish 
alive in its natural element. These pho¬ 
tographs, because of the refraction of 
light in the water, do not give a clear idea 
of this monster’s enormousness, and make 
it hard to realize that ourremarkable catch 
measured 22 feet across from the tip of 
one pectoral fin to the other and 17 feet 
I inch from the head to the end of the 
tail, and, moreover, weighed considerably 
more than 3,000 pounds. 

Seeing that it was well-nigh impossi¬ 
ble to give it a death blow, and that at 
any minute in its jockeying the fish might 
come up squarely under the boat and up¬ 
set us despite all that we could do, and as 
sharks had been attracted by its struggle 
and loss of blood, we naturally did not 
relish the thought of any such experience. 

VICTORY AFTER HOURS OF BATTLE 

Luckily, about this time, a fast-sailing 
little island sponge boat approached us to 
see what the excitement was all about, 
and we managed to make the spongers 
understand that they must go back to the 
yacht and bring the rifles, which had, 
unfortunately, been forgotten in our 
hurry to get started in the early morning. 

The native mariners were most willing 
to help, and made all haste possible; so, 
after another hour of skirmishing and 
ring generalship on both sides, the ship’s 
motor-driven dory came tearing out with 


an express rifle, and we were enabled to 
give the coup de grace. 

Until that moment not one of us real¬ 
ized that nearly five hours had elapsed 
since we first tackled this Jumbo of the 
deep, and none of us knew how tired we 
were, for in good truth we had been far 
too busy to give a thought to such small 
matters. Although this fish finally had 
four harpoons in its body and a dozen 
shots in its head and heart, it was by no 
means dead, and even then we had con¬ 
siderable difficulty in towing it into the 
harbor, miles away. 

Naturally, the natives of Bimini were 
very much interested in the capture, for 
Devil-fish were seldom seen much less 
captured, and we experienced no difficulty 
in engaging the services of a score of them 
to help get the carcass ashore, having 
decided to remove the hide and bony 
structure for preservation and mounting. 

NEARLY WRECKS THE WHARF 

By bringing into play a heavy block 
and tackle borrowed from the islanders, 
which was used for lifting and weighing 
cargoes of sisal fiber, and after much 
breaking of ropes, to say nothing of the 
wharf structure’s being in serious danger 
of collapse because of the great weight 
of the fish, we finally succeeded in getting 
most of its body out of water, so that it 
could be photographed and weighed by 
means of a large sisal scale. The utmost 
capacity of this scale was 3,000 pounds, 
and this is all which is claimed for the 
fish, although we judged it weighed 4,000, 
or possibly 5,000 pounds. 

Through the courtesy of Carl G. Fisher 
who had run over from the Florida coast 
in a fast express cruiser to join us in the 
sport, but who arrived too late to take 
part in the actual capture, we were en¬ 
abled to send back the necessary parts to 
a taxidermist at Miami for mounting, 
although it was a problem to know what 
to do with so enormous a thing after it 
was mounted, since not many rooms will 
take care of a fish measuring 22 feet 
across, and it was decided it would be 
presented to the splendid Aquarium at 
Miami Beach, of which Mr. Allison is 
president. 


Salmon, America’s Most Valuable Fish 

By HUGH M. SMITH 

Former United States Commissioner of Fisheries 


T he answer to the question, What 
are the most important fishes in 
American waters? is likely to vary 
with the geographical distribution of the 
persons addressed. 

The average citizen who lives within 
the sphere of influence of the sacred 
fish effigy hanging in the Massachusetts 
State-house will undoubtedly name the 
Cod and its allies that frequent the in¬ 
shore waters and the great submerged 
“banks” lying off the coasts of New Eng¬ 
land, and British maritime provinces, and 
Newfoundland. 

From the Hudson to the St. Johns, a 
primary vote would probably favor the 
Shad and Herrings among river fishes, 
and the Bluefish and Squeteague among 
marine species. 

Along the 1,700 miles of low-lying 
coast that extends from Key West to the 
Rio Grande, the fishermen and the fish¬ 
eating public can hardly conceive of any¬ 
thing more important in the way of food 
fish than the Mullets and Snappers. 

Throughout the Great Lakes the White- 
fishes, Trouts, and Pike Perches are so 
abundant and support such extensive 
fisheries that they would undoubtedly be 
awarded front rank by millions of people 
in the States abutting on these waters. 

EACH SECTION FOR ITS OWN FISH 

In the vast region drained by the Mis¬ 
sissippi and its tributaries, such homely 
species as the Catfishes and Buffalo-fishes 
attain their greatest development, and 
originally contributed more than any 
others to the income of the fishermen and 
the food supply of a score of States; but 
these natives have now been supplanted 
by an Asiatic alien which, having re¬ 
ceived a course of cultivation in Ger¬ 
many, came to our shores because of 
inducements held out by our government, 
and now, under the inaccurate name of 
German carp, has become the most im¬ 
portant inhabitant of our interior waters. 

Finally, practically every person on the 
Pacific seaboard will, without hesitation 


or fear of contradiction, assign the fore¬ 
most place among fishes to the salmons, 
which, entering every stream from Gold¬ 
en Gate to Bering Strait, constitute the 
most conspicuous element of the fish life. 

The last estimate is the correct one, 
for the Pacific salmons are the most 
valuable fishes not only of the United 
States, but also of the entire western 
hemisphere, and, with the smgle excep¬ 
tion of the sea herrings, are commercially 
the leading fishes of the world. 

THE FIVE SPECIES OF PACIFIC SALMONS 

The Pacific salmons constitute a dis¬ 
tinct group, closely resembling the At¬ 
lantic salmon, but separated by marked 
anatomical and physiological peculiarities. 

There are five distinct species, which, 
having many characters in common, 
nevertheless differ strikingly in size, 
color, habits, distribution, food value, and 
economic importance. All of the species 
occur on the California coast (to San 
Francisco Bay or a little farther south), 
and range thence to the far north, cross¬ 
ing to Siberia and reaching southward 
into Kamchatka, while three of them ex¬ 
tend to Japan. 

These fishes were first christened in . a 
scientific way by the German physician 
Walbaum, who, in 1792, invested them 
with the vernacular names by which they 
were known among the Russians. The 
rules of nomenclature require that these 
names be retained, and hence these beau¬ 
tiful creatures must bear for all time 
such outlandish names as kisutch and 
tschawytscha. It was as late as 1861 that 
Dr. George Suckley, the naturalist of the 
Pacific Railroad Survey, recognizing the 
generic distinctness of these fishes from 
the ordinary salmons {Sal 7 no)y gave 
them for the first time a clan name of 
their own, OncorhynchuSy meaning hook 
snout. 

The largest of the genus, and the most 
magnificent of all the salmons, is the 
Chinook, Quinnat, King, Spring, or Tyee 
salmon. It has an average weight of 



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197 


Canadian Government Fisheries Patrol boat is seen on the left. 




























198 


Photograph from John N. Cobb 

A REMARKABLE PICTURE OF SALMON SPAWNING ON A GRAVELLY RIFFLE IN A PACIFIC COAST STREAM 

'I'here are five species of Pacific salmons, and all of them have the remarkable habit of dying after once spawning. This applies to both sexes, and was a wise 
provision of nature to prevent overstocking. The only other American food fish with this habit is the common eel, which spawns and dies at sea. 












SALMON, AMERICA’S MOST VALUABLE FISH 


199 


nearly 25 pounds in the Columbia, and is 
often caught weighing 40 to 60 pounds, 
while occasionally examples of over 100 
pouncis are taken. While found from 
California to China, it attains its greatest 
abundance in the Sacramento, Columbia, 
Yukon, and other large streams. 

The species called Blueback salmon on 
the Columbia, Sockeye on Puget Sound, 
and Redfish or Red salmon in Alaska, 
averages only five pounds in weight and 
never exceeds twelve. It attains greatest 
abundance in the Columbia, the Fraser, 
and in various streams throughout 
Alaska. Its meat is rich in quality and 
deep red in color, and the fish is there¬ 
fore in great demand for canning. While 
a beautiful fish when in salt water, with 
bright blue back and silver sides, after 
entering fresh water it deteriorates 
rapidly in food value and appearance, 
the head turns to olive green, and the 
entire back and sides become crimson 
and finally dark blood red. 

The Silver or Coho salmon, with a gen¬ 
eral distribution in the coastal streams, 
averages 6 pounds in weight and rarely 
exceeds 25 or 30. 

The smallest species is the Humpback, 
so called from the well-marked nuchal 
hump developed by the male in fall. The^ 
extremes of weight for mature examples 
are 3 and 11 pounds, with 4 pounds as the 
average. The region of greatest abun¬ 
dance is Puget Sound to southeast Alaska. 

The remaining species, the Dog or 
Chum salmon, averages 8 pounds in 
weight. It is generally distributed and 
abundant, but, owing to the poor quality 
of the flesh, is the least important of the 
group. The distortion of the jaws in the 
male during the breeding season, while 
characteristic of all the species, is par¬ 
ticularly marked in the Dog salmon. 

INEVITABLE I)EATH AFTER SPAWNING 

The differences in spawning times and 
places of the different species of salmon 
are most interesting. After spending 
most of their lives at sea, growing, ac¬ 
cumulating fat, and storing energy, the 
salmons move inshore and ascend the 
streams. After once beginning their up¬ 
ward journey, they take no food, and in 
fact are physiologically incapable of di¬ 
gesting and assimilating food. 

The Quinnat salmon begins to run in 
spring and pushes its way to the head¬ 


waters of the larger streams. In the 
Columbia basin the species distributes 
itself over 90,000 square miles of Wash¬ 
ington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, 
its upward limit being insurmountable 
obstructions or falls. In the Snake River 
and the Yukon River the spawning pounds 
lie 2 poo miles by water from the sea. 

The spawning streams of the Red 
salmon are those that arise in lakes, and 
the spawning grounds are in the affluents 
of those lakes. The run begins in May 
and fish continue to come in until October, 
depending on latitude. 

The Silver salmon enters the streams 
from July toOctoberorNovember, but does 
not as a rule ascend for long distances. 

The Humpback runs into fresh water 
in summer and fall, preferably in short 
coast streams, and often spawns within a 
few rods of the ocean. 

The schools of Dog salmon come into 
the stream rather late; in the Columbia 
River and Puget Sound the run extends 
from August to late in November, and 
in Alaska the height of the season is 
about the first of September. 

Now, whether the salmon travel in the. 
streams 2,000 miles or 200 feet to reach 
their spawning grounds, and regardless 
of their physical condition at the time 
they arrive at the particular places re¬ 
quired for the proper development of 
eggs and young, every individual of every 
species dies shortly after spawning. This 
is the most characteristic and remarkable 
event in the life of the Pacific salmons. 

Why this is the case is one of nature’s 
mysteries. It has its parallel in some 
other fishes, in the may-fly, which perishes 
after a few hour’s existence, and in the 
annual plants. We can only say of such 
that they have served their purpose and 
are no longer needed. 

The death habit of the salmons was 
doubtless developed to prevent the over¬ 
stocking of streams, the exhaustion of 
the food supply of the young while in 
fresh water, and the consequent danger 
of the wiping out of species by mere ex¬ 
cess of numbers. This wise precaution 
of nature has become a positive detri¬ 
ment by the appearance of the human 
factor on the scene and the resulting de¬ 
struction of a large proportion of the 
run of each species each year in prac¬ 
tically every stream before the spawning 
act has occurred. 


200 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



SALMON EGGS ON TRAYS READY FOR SHIPMENT 

Eggs are packed in this manner for transfer between hatcheries and for distant shipment. The eggs 
packed in a case can, if kept cool and moist, remain out of water for several weeks without impair¬ 
ment. One hundred thousand eggs may be carried in a case. 


PERIODICITY OF THE RUNS 

While the Pacific salmons run with 
more or less regularity, year after year, 
two of the species exhibit, in particular 
streams or regions, a marked periodicity 
in abundance which is so well established 
that it can be predicted with certainty 
years in advance. 

The Blueback, or Sockeye, in certain 
streams shows a climax in abundance 
every fourth year. This is especially 
marked in Puget Sound and Fraser 
River, where the years 1905 and 1909, 
for example, were characterized by im¬ 
mense runs, while in 1906 and 1910 the 
abundance, as shown by the catch, was 
only one-fourth or one-fifth as great. 
The quadrennial periodicity in Puget 


Sound is strikingly shown by the fish 
caught and canned during the years 1903 
to 1910, as follows: 


1903 . 167,211 cases 

1904 . 109,264 

1905 . 82 S ,453 “ 

1906 . 178,748 “ 

1907 . 93,122 “ 

1908 . 170,951 “ 

1909 . 1,097.904 “ 

1910 . 248,014 “ 


The case of the Humpback salmon in 
the Puget Sound region is perhaps the 
best marked example of periodicity. The 
species there is biennial in its appearance. 
One year it comes in incalculable num¬ 
bers, crowding the streams, filling the 
nets, and giving canners all the raw ma- 











SALMON, AMERICA’S MOST VALUABLE FISH 


201 



Photograph by Shirley C. Hulse 


AN UNUSUALLY FINE MALE CHINOOK SALMON: WEIGHT, PERHAPS 60 POUNDS. 
THIS IS THE MOST MAGNIFICENT OF ALL THE SALMONS 


terial they can use. The next year the 
species is so scarce as to be practically 
absent. 

In 1907 the Puget Sound canners pre¬ 
pared 433,423 cases of Humpbacks, but 
in 1908 they were able to secure only 
enough fish to make 6,075 cases. In 1909 
the pack was 370,993 cases, while in 1910 
only 108 cases could be filled. Again, in 


1911 the pack was 1,046,992 cases while 
in 1912 the total was but 700. This 
alternation has continued to 1923 which 
was a year of abundance resulting in a 
pack of 475,849 cases. 

This periodicity is an indication of the 
age of the fish when mature. In the case 
of the Blueback, a large run, with the 
deposition of a large quantity of spawn, 





202 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by Shirley C. Hulse 

A FIELD HATCHERY OF THE STATE OF OREGON 


Here the eggs are put in troughs of running water, in which they hatch after a greater or less period, 
according to the temperature of the water. The eggs are picked over every day and all sterile or objection¬ 
able ones are thrown out. It is necessary to screen the troughs at this place on account of birds, which 
enter boldly and steal the eggs. The water ousel is the worst of these thieves. 


has its major effect four years later in 
the same region—that is, the normal life 
of this species, from its birth as an egg 
to its death as a parent, is four years. 
The Humpback, on the other hand, is a 
biennial species, a heavy run, with a cor¬ 
responding egg crop, having its effect 
two years later. Dr. Charles H. Gilbert, 
who has made prolonged studies of the 
Pacific salmon in the interests of the 
government, announces, as a practically 
accurate statement of fact, that the 
Humpback dies on its second birthday. 

THE salmon’s “instinct OF NATIVITY” 
AND THE PARENT-STREAM THEORY 

In view of the excellent quality of the 
Humpback and its growing importance as 
a fresh and preserved fish, the govern¬ 
ment now proposes to make a determined 
effort to establish in Puget Sound a large 
run during the off years. This experi¬ 
ment will extend over several seasons, 
and will involve the transfer from Alaska 
of perhaps a hundred million Humpback 
eggs for hatching on Puget Sound. If 


successful it will prove tremendously im¬ 
portant commercially, and incidentally 
the efficacy of artificial propagation will 
be submitted to a crucial test. 

One of the most deeply seated and 
widely entertained theories regarding the 
salmons (and other species of similar 
habits) is that by virtue of a mysterious 
faculty, which has been called the instinct 
of nativity, these fishes return to spawn 
in the same stream in which they were 
hatched. 

The advocates of this view find sup¬ 
port for it in some well-known facts in 
the life of the salmons, such as the oc¬ 
currence of distinctive runs in particular 
streams, the return of marked fish,, re¬ 
sponse to plants of large numbers of 
young, etc. Without entering into a dis¬ 
cussion of this question, it may be said 
that in so far as the theory is borne out 
by facts, the latter may be explained 
without the necessity of investing the sal¬ 
mon and other anadromous fishes with a 
higher order of intelligence than is pos¬ 
sessed by any other creatures. 









SALMON, AMERICA’S MOST VALUABLE FISH 


203 



Photograph by Shirley C. Hulse 


THE CAZADERO DAM, ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER, OREGON 
Note the fish ladder just to the right of the dam. The fish attack the fall along its entire length. 
The Cazadero Dam is 40 feet high, so of course it is impassible, but the fish never seemed discouraged. 
Morning and evening, all during the run, they leaped at the foot of the apron, apparently undaunted by 
the heavy blows received in landing on the bucket or the rocks. The hatchery is located in a curve of the 
big flume leading from the dam, and about a quarter of a mile downstream. 


It is true as a general proposition that 
the fish hatched in a particular stream 
return to that stream to spawn, but this 
is largely because that is the most natural 
and most accessible place to go, and it is 
more remarkable when they go else¬ 
where, as they frequently do. 

salmon’s instinct not unfathomable 
The schools of salmon when sojourn¬ 
ing in the ocean, preparing for their all- 
important function, do not roam many 
miles distant from the mouth of the par¬ 
ticular stream in which they were born 
and spent the early months of their life. 
Having reached the proper age, they are 
impelled by the spawning instinct to 
move shoreward, and they eventually 
come within the influence of the fresh 
water discharged into ocean, gulf, or bay 
by a stream that is more likely to have 
been the “parent stream” than another. 
It thus happens that streams pouring a 
vast volume of fresh water into the 
sea, like the Columbia and Fraser, and 
streams whose mouths are more or less 
remote from others, like the Sacramento, 


are likely to induce the return of a large 
proportion of the fish that originally pro¬ 
ceeded therefrom. 

On the other hand, there is no reason 
to doubt that the salmon spawned in con¬ 
tiguous coastal streams or in particular 
tributaries of a large river return indif¬ 
ferently to any of those streams or tribu¬ 
taries, depending on conditions (storms 
at sea, floods, temperature of coastal or 
river water, enemies, etc.), which vary 
from season to season. 

GOVERNMENT AND STATE EFFORTS TO 
INCREASE THE SALMON SUPPLY 

The artificial propagation of salmon in 
the streams of the Pacific seaboard be¬ 
gan at a comparatively early date and 
has continued with yearly increasing ex¬ 
tent and importance, so that at the pres¬ 
ent time more hatcheries are devoted to 
the Pacific salmons than to any other 
fishes of the Western Hemisphere. The 
vast interests at stake have appeared to 
warrant and to require all the monev that 
could properly be expended by the Federal 
and State governments for salmon culture. 










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204 




SALMON, AMERICA’S MOST VALUABLE FISH 


205 


It was believed at the outset that de¬ 
pendence would have to be placed on 
artificial propagation to offset the tre¬ 
mendous drains made on the supply by 
man and other destructive agencies, and 
it was generally maintained at a very early 
period in the history of the salmon indus¬ 
try that with adequate cultivation the fish¬ 
eries could increase almost indefinitely. 

The first salmon hatchery in the West 
was established in 1872, on the McCloud 
River, in California. By executive order 
there was set aside a large tract for a 
“piscicultural preserve,” which was fit¬ 
tingly named Baird, after the first na¬ 
tional commissioner of fisheries; and 
Livingstone Stone, a pioneer fish culturist, 
was placed in charge and continued in 
that capacity for many years, overcoming 
many obstacles, undergoing many priva¬ 
tions, repeatedly subjected to great danger 
from attacks of Indians and outlaws, while 
devising methods which showed the possi¬ 
bilities of salmon culture and led to the 
present extraordinary development of 
this art. 

THE VAST EXTENT OF SALMON CULTURE 

The original Baird hatchery, still in 
active operation, is now supplemented by 
numerous other government stations, 
which may be regarded as lineal descend¬ 
ants. Three of these are in the Sacra¬ 
mento Valley, in California; four are in 
the Columbia basin, in Oregon and 
Washington; seven are in the Puget 
Sound and adjacent Washington region, 
and two are in Alaska. The three Pacific- 
coast States now maintain more than 30 
salmon hatcheries, the largest number 
being in Washington. 

A feature of the salmon industry which 
is not met with in any other branch of 
the fisheries has been the establishment 
and maintenance by private interests of 
hatcheries at various places on the coast. 
At present this practice is confined to 
Alaska, where, in 1911, five hatcheries 
belonging to canning companies pro¬ 
duced and liberated many millions of 
young red salmon. 

The eggs of the salmons are .2 to .25 
inch in diameter, and are the largest 
handled by the fish culturist. They are 
easily obtained by intercepting the fish 
on their way to the spawning grounds by 
means of racks, traps, seines, etc., and 
then, when exactly ripe, by expressing 
by firm pressure on the abdomen. 


The size and activity of the salmons 
make it necessary for two or three men to 
work together in holding the fish and reliev¬ 
ing them of their eggs and milt, and the 
largest individuals are most readily man¬ 
aged by putting them in a straight jacket. 

In view of the inevitable death of the 
salmon after spawning, an improvement 
over the old method of forcible expul¬ 
sion of the eggs is the stunning of the 
fish by a blow on the head and the taking 
of the eggs by abdominal section. This, 
while greatly facilitating the work of the 
spawn-takers, adds approximately 10 per 
cent to the egg yield by the saving of 
eggs that would ordinarily be left in the 
abdominal cavity. 

Salmon eggs hatch slowly. Incuba¬ 
tion, beginning in late summer or early 
autumn, continues until the following 
spring or summer, depending on the 
temperature of the water. The most 
protracted period of incubation thus far 
coming to the notice of fish culturists is 
that of the red salmon at Karluk, Alaska, 
where eggs taken in September may not 
hatch until the following May or June, 
and in certain seasons the hatching time 
has been prolonged to 270 days. 

The annual deposits of young salmon 
in the waters of the Pacific seaboard by 
the Bureau of Fisheries, the three coast 
States, the province of British Columbia, 
and the private hatcheries in Alaska now 
total from 450 to 500 million, of which 
the largest quantity represents the work 
of the Federal government. 

The human effort represented by this 
tremendous output may perhaps be better 
appreciated when a season’s take of eggs 
is considered as a commodity. The aver¬ 
age number of salmon eggs to a bushel 
may be given at 125,000. The number 
of eggs taken, fertilized, and incubated 
by the United States Bureau of Fisheries 
at its California, Oregon, Washington, 
and Alaska hatcheries in 1911 was equiv¬ 
alent to 1,500 bushels. The salmon-egg 
harvest of the other efficient agencies in¬ 
dicated would bring the yearly total up 
to 4,500 bushels. 

HOW MAN IMPROVES ON NATURE 

In the discussions of important eco¬ 
nomic questions affecting natural re¬ 
sources, especially animals, the conten¬ 
tion is sometimes made that man cannot 
improve on nature’s methods. This plea, 
which impresses many people and con- 



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207 


DRYING AND MENDING SALMON NETS AT BALMORAL CANNERY ON THE SKEENA RIVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA 































208 


I'HE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by Curtis & Miller 


A RETORT WHICH COOKS TWO THOUSAND CANS OF SALMON AT A TIME 

Here they are given the final cooking under steam pressure. WTile large quantities of salmon are 
sold in a fresh, salted, or smoked condition, by far the major part of the catch is canned. 


duces to neglect of the needs of some 
of our most valuable creatures, is most 
emphatically and clearly refuted in sal¬ 
mon culture. 

It is a matter of general observation 
that nature is most prodigal in producing 
fish eggs and young far in excess of the 
needs of the species, and permitting the 
destruction of a very large percentage of 
the progeny before maturity is reached. 
With the advent of the human factor, 
there is a disturbance of the nice balance 
that had come to be established, and it is 
then that fish culture is demanded and 
justifies itself by saving a large propor¬ 


tion of the eggs and young that are ordi¬ 
narily sacrificed. 

MAN MORE EFFECTIVE THAN NATURE 

Just how effective ar.e the operations 
of the salmon culturist, and how strongly 
artificial propagation is now demanded 
because of the enormous drains that are 
made on the small remnants of the origi¬ 
nal progeny that have reached the re¬ 
productive age, may be seen from the 
following comparison: 

Under ordinary conditions of natural 
propagation, a certain small percentage 
of the ripe eggs are not extruded, but 





SALMON, AMERICA’S MOST VALUABLE FISH 


209 


remain within the body of the female, 
and are therefore wasted; from lo to 20 
per cent of the total number of eggs 
escape fertilization; a very large propor¬ 
tion (60 to 80 per cent) of the eggs are 
destroyed by predaceous fishes and other 
agencies; and, while the newly hatched 
young are in the helpless non-swimming 
stage, burdened by the heavy yolk-sac, 
they are such easy victims and such 
dainty morsels to the myriads of fishes 
that infest the spawning grounds, that 
an additional loss of 10 to 15 per cent 
occurs, so that of the original crop of 
eggs, only i to 2 per cent reach the age 
to which the fish culturist carries the 
young salmon. 

Under the present effective methods 
of artificial hatching, the total losses up 
to the time when the young are set free 
in the rivers, amply able to care for 
themselves, although still liable to con¬ 
siderable mortality before reaching the 
ocean, are not more than 20 per cent, are 
frequently only 10 per cent, and should 
not exceed 15 per cent under average 
conditions. 

Therefore, as against an absolute loss 
of 98 or 99 per cent in nature, the fish 
culturist is to be credited with a saving 
of 85 per cent. 

The natural mortality among young 
salmon in the rivers decreases rapidly as 
the fish become stronger, more active, 
and more alert. The most important ad¬ 
vance that salmon culture can make will 
therefore be in retaining the young at 
the hatcheries for a longer period before 
turning them loose in open waters to 
shift for themselves. There is no par¬ 
ticular difficulty in rearing salmon in 
captivity; the difficulty lies in providing 
at a given hatchery the necessary arti¬ 
ficial pond area in which to hold and 
feed perhaps 100 million rapidly growing 
fish. 

EXTENT OF THE SALMON INDUSTRY 

The salmon industry on the Pacific 
coast owes its origin, rapid development, 
and present extent to the establishment 
of canneries. During the 60 years that 
have elapsed since salmon canning be¬ 
gan, more than 175 million cases (each 
holding 48 one-pound cans or the equiva¬ 
lent) have been packed. The fresh 
weight of the salmon entering into this 
output has been over ten billion pounds. 


Recent years have witnessed marked 
changes in the relative amounts of salmon 
canned, salted, and sold fresh or refrig¬ 
erated, but much the largest proportion 
of the catch is still canned, and this will 
necessarily be the case for years to come> 

Salmon fishing is conducted through¬ 
out the range of the salmons, but the 
industry is most extensive in or near the 
mouths of certain streams, chief of 
which are the vSacramento, Columbia, 
Fraser, Skeena, Karluk, and Nushagak. 
Most of the fishing in Alaska is in bays, 
straits, and sands adjacent to small 
streams. 

Alaska’s enormous salmon 

RESOURCES 

In one year the aggregate catch of salmon 
in the Pacific States, British Columbia, 
and Alaska was upward of four hundred 
million pounds, which, as sold in a canned, 
salted, smoked, frozen, or fresh condi¬ 
tion, had a market value of about $27,- 
750,000. The canned product alone, 
consisting of more than five million 
cases of 48 one-pound cans, was worth 
$25,500,000. Thirty-five thousand people 
were engaged in the different branches 
of the industry, and the invested capital 
was fully $30,000,000. 

Many years have elapsed since Alaska 
ceased to be “Seward’s Folly,” because 
Alaska for a long time has annually more 
than repaid her purchase price in salmon 
alone. The salmons have in fact been 
Alaska’s most valuable contribution to 
the world’s needs, exceeding in abun¬ 
dance and importance those of any other 
region. 

The salmon industry may be said to 
have began in 1878, when the first can¬ 
nery was operated. The exploitation of 
the different sections has progressed 
rapidly, and in 1917 the catch was the 
largest ever made, amounting to about 
seventy million fish, weighing about three 
hundred and sixty million pounds. 

While all of the five species occur in 
Alaska, they differ markedly in distribu¬ 
tion and relative abundance. The Red 
salmon is most numerous in central and 
western Alaska, where three-fourths of 
the catch is obtained. On the other hand, 
nine-tenths of the output of Humpbacks 
and a large proportion of the other species 
come from southeast Alaska. The pre¬ 
ponderance of the Red and Humpback 


210 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by Shirley C. Hulse 


SALMON LEAPING OVER THE SWIFT WATER NEAR THE TOE OF CADAZERO DAM 

AND SEEN FROM ABOVE 


species is shown by the fact that of the 
forty-four million salmon utilized in 1911, 
about seventeen and one-half million were 
the former and twenty-one and one-half 
million the latter. 

To have transported, in a fresh con¬ 
dition, the output of 1917 would have 
required a train of 12,000 freight cars, 
each holding 30,000 pounds of fish. If 
placed end to end, the fish would have 
extended in an unbroken line five times 
across the continent from New York to 
San Francisco. 

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SUPREME IN 
ALASKA 

Interest in the salmon fisheries of 
Alaska is increased by the fact that they 
are under the jurisdiction of the Federal 
government. The remarkable develop¬ 
ment of the industry and its flourishing 
condition are to be attributed in great 
measure to the wise policy adopted by 
the government in encouraging the utili¬ 


zation of the resources while safeguard¬ 
ing the supply. Under the wise laws 
made by Congress, supplemented by the 
large discretionary powers invested in 
the Secretary of Commerce, the salmon 
fisheries ought to remain unimpaired for 
an indefinite period. 

UNITED STATES CONTROLS INDUSTRY 

The major key to the situation is the 
authority to close to all fishing for a term 
of years any stream in which the extent 
of the fishing is disproportionate to the 
number of fish that are allowed to reach 
their spawning grounds. 

Although the fishery force available 
for patrolling the Alaska coast is woe¬ 
fully inadequate, yet even in the most 
remote and seldom visited parts there is 
a wholesale sentiment for salmon pro¬ 
tection, and violations of the law are 
surprisingly few. 

The large fishing companies, with im¬ 
mense vested interests, are vitallv con- 


SALMON, AMERICA’S MOST VALUABLE FISH 


211 



Photograph by Shirley C. Hulse 


FERTILIZING THE SALMON EGGS: OREGON 


It sometimes requires two men to handle a large buck. As soon as the “milt” is in the pan with the 
eggs, a little water is added and the whole stirred until the mass of eggs is thoroughly impregnated. 


cerned in the perpetuation of the sal¬ 
mon supply, and are willing to meet the 
government half way in inaugurating 
and enforcing measures for the preven¬ 
tion of overfishing or other destructive 
methods. 

One of the most novel and interesting 
pieces of work conducted by the Bureau 
of Fisheries in connection with the ad¬ 
ministration of the Alaska salmon fish¬ 
eries is the taking of a census of the 
spawning salmon moving up one of the 


principal streams in the territory. The 
results and the purport of this effort are 
most important, and a brief account is 
not out of place here. 

Since 1907 Nushagak and Wood rivers, 
which flow into Nushagak Bay, in west¬ 
ern Alaska, have been closed to commer¬ 
cial fishing by virtue of the power con¬ 
ferred by law on the Secretary of Com¬ 
merce. In 1908, through the liberal 
cooperation of two salmon companies 
operating in the region, the Bureau at 






212 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 


great expense and labor, placed across 
Wood River an intercepting rack, which 
compelled all migrating salmon to pass 
through narrow tunnels or gates provided 
for the purpose and so arranged that 
the fish would be readily visible to persons 
on watch. 

Men provided with an automatic count¬ 
ing and registering device were stationed 
on the rack night and day and kept a 
tally of the salmon as they passed up¬ 
stream. The run continued during all of 
July and part of August, and on one day 
over 324,000 fish were recorded, and on 
another more than 402,000. The total 
tally was 2,603,655 salmon, all of the red 
species. 

These were fish that had escaped the 
very active fishing in Nushagak Bay, and 
in addition to them several million other 
fish are known to have gone up other 
tributaries of the bay to their spawning 
grounds, the data available indicating 
that the total run of red salmon in the 
Nushagak basin in 1908 was as many as 
13,600,000, with 10,100,000 as the mini¬ 
mum, of which 6,400,000 were caught 
and utilized at the local canneries. 

Therefore, under the most favorable 
conditions for reproduction, nearly 53 
per cent of the run escaped, and under 
the most unfavorable 37 per cent. 


TAKING A SALMON CENSUS 

During each of the three following 
years the rack was reconstructed at the 
same place, and the census of the run 
was taken in the same way, with the fol¬ 
lowing results: 1909, 893,244 fish; 1910, 
670,104 fish; 1911, 354,299 fish. 

In 1912, the fourth year of the rack 
test, a large run corresponding to the 
run of 1908 was expected. Only 325,264 
fish were counted, however, but for some 
unaccountable reason a big run occurred 
in 1913 totalling 735,109 fish. No work 
was performed during 1914. In the 
following two years the run was low 
according to expectations and then came 
in large in 1917, the fourth year after 
the large 1913 run. Again the count fell 
off In 1918 and 1919. 

It was thought that this experiment 
and similar trials in other streams would 
afford accurate data relative to the 
natural increment of the fish, so that 
the approximate size of the run being 
known, the minimum number of fish neces¬ 
sary to maintain the supply may be 
allowed to pass to the spawning grounds 
each year and the remainder of the run 
placed at the disposal of the fisherman. 
Except for the off year of 1912 the test 
has provided suitable data for such a 
determination. 



Oysters: A Leading Fishery Product 

By HUGH M. SMITH 

Former United States Commissioner of Fisheries 


O YSTERS are the most popular 
and most extensively eaten of 
all shellfish; economically, they 
are the most important of all cultivated 
water products and, with the single ex¬ 
ception of the sea herrings, the most 
valuable of all aquatic animals. Zoolog¬ 
ically considered, oysters are lamelli- 
branchiate mollusks of the genus Ostrea. 

In at least 35 countries oysters support 
a special fishery, and in various other 
countries enter into the food supply. On 
the shores of all the temperate and tropi¬ 
cal oceans and seas, oysters occur in 
greater or less abundance; but the supply 
in the North Atlantic exceeds that of all 
the other waters combined. Not less than 
one hundred and fifty thousand men and 
women are engaged in the oyster industry; 
and the capital invested in vessels, boats, 
apparatus, oyster lands, and cultural estab¬ 
lishments aggregates many million dollars. 

The oyster crop of the world at the 
present time amounts to over twenty-two 
million bushels and is valued at nearly 
$20,000,000. Of this output, the share 
of the United States is 79 per cent of the 
quantity and 63 per cent of the value. 
Of the remaining portion the greater part 
belongs to France. 

At least one hundred species are known, 
with a rather wide range in size, shape, 
habits, flavor, and food value. Some ex¬ 
cellent species exist in the equatorial and 
sub-tropical regions, but the best occur 
in temperate climes. The northern limits 
of their habitat are the Gulf of St. Law¬ 
rence and southern Norway in the At¬ 
lantic, and Hokkaido and Puget Sound 
in the Pacific. 

Oysters produce an immense number 
of young in order to compensate for the 
heavy mortality that occurs at all stages 
of growth, but particularly in the early 
months. It is an astonishing biological 
fact that in some species of oyster each 
sex is represented by a different indi¬ 
vidual, as in the oyster of the Atlantic 
coast of North America: while in other 
species both sexes are united in one in¬ 


dividual—the male stage alternating with 
the female, as in the common oyster of 
the Atlantic coast of Europe. 

After the oyster attains a size that is 
visible to the unaided eye, it is incapable 
of changing its position. This is in 
marked contrast with the newly born 
young, which is a free-swimming crea¬ 
ture, floating about with tides and cur¬ 
rents, and quite as likely to settle down 
on a far-distant bank or bar as to rejoin 
its progenitors. 

Of the millions of microscopic young 
liberated by a single full-grown oyster, 
only an exceedingly small percentage be¬ 
come attached to a suitable bottom, form 
a shell, and enter on a career that will 
terminate on the table in two to four 
years. When the temperature, density, 
tides, and currents are favorable, the 
young will settle on an existing bar or 
bed, covering the shells of the old oys¬ 
ters and any other hard surfkces or ob¬ 
jects that may be present. All the young 
that fall on a muddy or soft sandy bot¬ 
tom, or on surfaces that are slimy, are 
lost. Oyster culture therefore aims pri¬ 
marily to conserve the free-swimming 
young, which it accomplishes by sowing 
clean oyster-shells or other ‘"cultch” to 
which the “spat” can attach, or by col¬ 
lecting the young on tiles or brush raised 
above the bottom or suspended between 
surface and bottom. 

CHINA AND ITALY CULTIVATED OYSTERS 
2,000 YEARS AGO 

Oysters have been under culture longer 
than any other shellfish and, indeed, than 
any other water creature. A simple type 
of cultivation, with the formation of 
artificial beds, flourished in China at 
a very remote period and probably an¬ 
tedated by some centuries the inception 
of oyster culture in Italy, about the year 
100 B. C. With the advance of civiliza¬ 
tion and the increase in population, oys¬ 
ters were in greater demand and of ne¬ 
cessity came under cultivation in all the 
important maritime countries of Europe, 


214 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph from Dr. Hugh M. Smith 

ANATOMY OF THE OYSTER 

“It is an astonishing biological fact that in some species of oyster each sex is represented by a different 
individual, as in the oyster of the Atlantic coast of North America; while in other species both sexes are 
united in one individual—the male stage alternating with the female, as in the common oyster of the 
Atlantic coast of Europe.” 


where, at the present time, fully 90 per 
cent of the output represents oysters that 
have undergone some kind of culture. 
In other parts of the Old World the 
growing of oysters by artificial means 
has become an important industry, while 
in the Western Hemisphere oyster farm¬ 
ing has progressed to such a point that 
the annual crop now exceeds the total 
product of the rest of the world. 

Oysters are thus become the most ex¬ 
tensively cultivated of all aquatic ani¬ 
mals, and the yearly product of the oyster 
farms is many times more valuable than 
that of all other aquicultural operations 
combined. 

The cultivation of oysters is made 
necessary by the exhaustion of the nat¬ 
ural beds; it is made possible by private 
ownership or control of oyster-producing 


bottoms; and it is greatly facilitated by 
the peculiar susceptibility of oysters to 
increase and improvement by artificial 
means. 

THE OYSTER HAS MANY ENEMIES 

The human animal is not the only one 
that looks with favor upon the edible 
qualities of the oyster. At every stage 
in its career it is attacked by a horde of 
dangerous enemies, some of which are 
most destructive after the oyster has put 
on its stoutest armor and would seem 
to be almost invulnerable. Before it be¬ 
comes attached, the delicate oyster fry is 
extensively consumed by adult oysters 
and various other shellfish, as well as by 
fishes like the Menhaden, which are able 
to strain their food from the water. 
When the oyster attains its shell, a new 



OYS'I'KRS: A LEADING FISHERY PRODUCI' 


215 



Photograph from Dr. Hugh M. Smith 


OYSTERS ENCUMBERED WITH A MASS OF EGGS OF THE WHELK 
When the eggs hatch, the young whelks will devour young oysters hy boring through the shell. 



INSPECTING A JAPANESE OYSTER CROP 

The great rise and fall of the tides in Japan is of considerable advantage to the oyster farmer, enabling him 
to keep his crop under direct observation during the entire period of growth. 


216 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



1 Photograph from Dr. Hugh M. Smith 

STARFISH ATTACKING AN OYSTER 


The weak conquers the strong when the starfish come in out of deep water to raid an oyster bed. 
A test of endurance takes place as the starfish clamps itself over the lips of a rough oyster shell. Doggedly 
it clings until the muscle holding the shell together relaxes from fatigue. Then the starfish inserts its 
stomach and swallows the tender helpless organism. 


set of shellfish enemies, provided with 
drills, begin their attacks and extract the 
soft parts through minute holes made in 
valves. In some localities various snail- 
like mollusks do immense damage to the 
beds of oysters in their first year. 

The oyster growers of Long Island 
Sound and adjacent waters suffer large 
losses from the inroads of starfishes, 
which come in from deep water and 
move in waves over the bottom, devour¬ 
ing every oyster in their path and some¬ 
times destroying several hundred thou¬ 
sand bushels of marketable oysters in 
one State in a single season. It is re¬ 
markable that a weak creature like the 
common starfish should be able to prey 
on an animal so strongly fortified as an 
oyster. The starfish acts by attaching 


itself to the lips of the oyster-shell and 
exerting a steady and long-sustained 
traction with each of its numerous small 
suckers. After a time the powerful ad¬ 
ductor muscle of the oyster becomes fa¬ 
tigued, the valves open, and the starfish 
inserts its stomach and devours the help¬ 
less oyster at leisure. 

Other enemies of the grown oyster are 
fishes with powerful jaws armed with 
crushing teeth. On the Atlantic coast 
the most destructive fish is the Black 
Drum, a school of which may literally 
clean out an oyster-bed in one night. On 
the Pacific coast a species of stingray is 
the chief offender, and to stop its rav¬ 
ages the oyster growers have been 
obliged to inclose the beds with stout 
palisades. 


OYSTERS: A LEADING FISHERY PRODUCT 


217 



Photograph from Dr. Hugh M. Smith 

VERY YOUNG OYSTERS (“SPAT”) ATTACHED TO THE INSIDE OF AN OYSTER 
SHELL WHICH HAS BEEN “PLANTED” FOR THIS PURPOSE 


The planting of suitable material, such as old shells, gravel, etc., to which young oysters may attach 
themselves after the free-swimming stage, is an exceedingly important branch of the oyster industry, for 
any of the young falling on mud or sand are lost. 


Further damage is done to oysters by 
the encroachments of mussels, barnacles, 
sponges, etc., which sometimes occur so 
densely on the shells as to cut off food 
and oxygen and thus greatly retard the 
growth of the oysters. 

OYSTERS ARE CHEAPEST AND MOST 
POPULAR IN THE UNITED STATES 

In any consideration of the world’s 
oyster industry the United States neces¬ 
sarily receives first and most prominent 
mention, for there is no country in which 
oysters occupy a more important place. 
The output here is larger and more valu¬ 
able than elsewhere, and the relative im¬ 
portance of oysters compared with the 
total fishery product is greater. Further¬ 
more, among the leading oyster-produc¬ 
ing countries the cost of oysters to the 
consumer is least and the per capita con¬ 
sumption is greatest in the United States. 
Additional evidence of the conspicuous 
position held by the oyster is seen in the 
facts (i) that it is taken in every coastal 
State except one; (2) that in 15 States 
it is the chief fishery product, and (3) 
that it is the most extensively cultivated 
of our aquatic animals. 

The annual oyster output at this time 


is about seventeen million bushels, with a 
value to the producers of nearly ^13,000,- 
000. The yield increased 70 per cent in 
quantity between 1880 and 1912. During 
the past decade there has been a slow 
decrease in the size of; the crop. The 
limit of production has perhaps been 
practically reached in certain States, but 
in most States the industry is capable of 
great expansion. In recent years the 
South Atlantic and Gulf States have 
experienced a noteworthy augmentation 
of yield as a result of increased apprecia¬ 
tion of the oyster resources and increased 
encouragement given to oyster culture. 

The seven leading oyster States at 
this time are Rhode Island, New York, 
New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Mis¬ 
sissippi and Louisiana in each of which 
the production ranges from a million 
bushels upwards. Maryland is the rank¬ 
ing State as regards production with 
four and one-half million bushels, followed 
by Virginia with three and one-fourth 
million bushels and New Jersey with 
one and one-half million bushels. As 
regards value of oysters taken Mary¬ 
land leads with $2,291,120 followed 
closely by Virginia with $2,167,923 and 
New Jersey with $2,070,496. A bushel 



218 


'I'HE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph from Dr. Hugh M. Smith 

OYSTERS GROWING ON AN OLD LANTERN 

The tendency of the oyster to attach itself to any 
convenient object has been made use of by the oyster 
culturist from time immemorial. The Romans cultivated 
the oyster, particularly at Lake Avernus, and the tra¬ 
ditional method of culture is still practiced today at Lago 
Fusaro, near Naples. 


three-fourths million bushels, valued 
at $4,460,000, or 35 per cent of the 
quantity and 22 per cent of the 
value of the entire oyster crop of the 
United States for 1920. 

While the oyster yield of Chesa¬ 
peake Bay and tributaries in all 
recent years has been considerably 
less than formerly, nevertheless the 
industry today is in a healthier 
condition than ever before. This 
apparently paradoxical statement is 
explained by the fact that whereas 
in earlier years a very large pro¬ 
portion of the product was obtained 
from public beds, whose depletion 
had already begun and whose ulti¬ 
mate destruction was inevitable, now 
an annually increasing proportion 
of the oyster output is taken from 
grounds under private control and 
represents an actual aquicultural crop. 

In Virginia about 50 per cent of 
the value of the State’s oyster in¬ 
dustry is contributed by grounds 
under cultivation, and in Maryland 
an increasingly large proportion is 
from private beds—a condition which 
25 years ago would have been re¬ 
garded as almost impossible, for at 
that time these States were firmly 
committed to the policy of making 
their oyster industry depend on 
public or natural beds and restric¬ 
tive measures, and discouraged the 
general inauguration of oyster plant¬ 
ing on public oyster grounds. 

OYSTER CULTURE IN THE UNITED 


of oysters in New York brings the oyster- 
man $1.30 while a bushel in Maryland 
brings 50 cents and a bushel in Louisiana 
44 cents. 

CHESAPEAKE BAY IS THE WORLd’s 
GREATEST OYSTER GROUND 

The body of water which produces 
more oysters than any other body of 
water in the United States or, in fact, in 
the whole world, is Chesapeake Bay. The 
latest statistics of the oyster industry 
show the preponderating importance of 
the bay: an output of over seven and 


This policy was in strong contrast 
with that in the next most impor¬ 
tant oyster-producing region, name¬ 
ly, Long Island Sound, where the 
States of New York and Connecticut 
had cut loose from the old fetish of the 
sanctity of public oyster grounds, had 
leased or sold those grounds for planting 
purposes, and had assumed the front 
rank, although their natural advantages 
for oyster growing were much inferior to 
those in Chesapeake Bay. 

The rank early attained by the United 
States in the oyster industry was due to 
the great area of the oyster-beds; but 
the maintenance of that rank depends on 
the general adoption of oyster culture as 
the only certain means of insuring a 





OYSTERS: A LEADING FISHERY PRODUCT 


219 



Photograph from Dr. Hugh M. Smith 

OYSTERS GROWING WITHIN AND ON A YEAST- 
POWDER BOTTLE 

In America and England the general practice is to use old 
oyster-shells as cultch, but in France and Holland the spat is 
generally collected on concave earthenware tiles. It is necessary 
to detach the oysters from the tiles before they are a year old, 
and, as this could not be done without injury were the young 
directly attached to the hard tile, a coating of lime or soft mortar 
is used to cover the tile, and from it the oysters can be easily re¬ 
moved with a sharp knife. 


yearly increasing crop that will 
keep pace with the increasing 
demand. 

Of the oysters marketed last 
year, 50 per cent came from 
private or cultivated grounds. 

Owing, however, to the im¬ 
provement in the quality and 
shape of oysters by cultivation, 
the product of the private beds 
represented 70 per cent of the 
total value of the yield of 
market oysters. While the 
quantity of oysters taken from 
cultivated grounds in the 
United States is larger than in 
all the remainder of the world, 
yet the proportion of such 
oysters to the total output is 
much smaller than in any other 
important oyster-producing 
country. 

Wherever the fishery is ac¬ 
tive and the demand great, the 
necessity for artificial meas¬ 
ures to maintain the supply 
sooner or later becomes mani¬ 
fest. Some of the States long 
since ceased to place reliance 
on natural beds as sources of 
supply, and encouraged oyster 
culture by leasing or selling all 
available grounds to prospec¬ 
tive oyster farmers, and each 
year other States are falling 
in line for progressive methods. 

The American oyster in¬ 
dustry has been greatly re¬ 
tarded in one of the most im¬ 
portant regions by the failure 
of the States to adapt them¬ 
selves to existing conditions 
and by their deep-seated preju¬ 
dice against innovations based 
on modern conceptions and 
experience. 

Nowhere in this country is 
there any excuse for continuing to rely on 
public oyster grounds as sources of supply, 
and the proposition to discourage or pro¬ 
hibit individual control of land for agri¬ 
cultural purposes would not be less absurd 
than to prevent or retard the acquisi¬ 
tion of submerged lands for aquicultural 
purposes. 

The prosperous condition of our oyster 
industry at present is directly due to the 
more general acceptance of more rational 


standards as regards oyster culture, and 
it is only a question of a few years when 
there will be unanimous recognition, as 
an orthodox fact, of what a short time 
ago would have been regarded as the 
rankest economic heresy, namely, that 
natural oyster-beds as a general propo¬ 
sition are to be considered nuisances, 
whose perpetuation delays progress and 
impairs the prosperity of the oyster 
industry. 



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222 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



Photograph by Keystone View Co. 

J: OYSTER CULTURE, 


A MOUNTAIN OF OYSTER SHELLS READY FOR PLANTING 

HAMPTON, VIRGINIA 


An essential of oyster farming is to spread on the bottom cleKr material for the attachment and tern 
porary support of the young oysters. When first hatched, they are free-swimming, microseopie creatures 
but m a few hours they fall to the bottom and are lost unless they can adhere to a firm, clean surface while 
making their shells and undergoing development. 


SEVEN POINTS OF OYSTER CULTURE 

Reduced to its simplest terms, oyster 
culture in the United States consists in 
(i) acquiring suitable submerged bot¬ 
tom, (2) cleaning and preparing that 
bottom for the growth of oysters, (3) 
sowing thereon shells or other material 
( cultch ) for the attachment and 
growth of the young oysters, (4) insur¬ 


ing the production of larval oysters by 
the proximity of natural or planted beds 
of adult oysters, (5) protecting the oys¬ 
ter beds from enemies, (6) transplant¬ 
ing as occasion requires to prevent over¬ 
crowding and to facilitate growth and 
fattening, and (7) culling and sorting 
for market. 

A prevalent practice among oyster 


























OYSTERS: A LEADING FISHERY PRODUCT 


223 


growers in some sections is to transfer 
oysters from salt water to brackish or 
less dense water for a short time before 
shipping to market, with the object of 
making them take on an illusive appear¬ 
ance of fatness by the rapid absorption 
of fresher water, while the more saline 
fluids in the tissues slowly pass out. This 
process, known as plumping, floating, or 
fattening, results in a swelling of the 
oysters to the full capacity of the shell, 
but adds nothing to their nutritive value 
or flavor. On the contrary, it extracts 
certain nutritious ingredients and re¬ 
places them with water. Chemical tests 
have shown that this sadly misnamed 
process of “fattening” deprives the oys¬ 
ters of lo to 15 per cent of their food 
value, while increasing their weight from 
10 to 20 per cent. A similar result is 
seen when oysters are placed in fresh 
water or brought into contact with 
melting ice after removal from the 
shell. 

OYSTERS ON THE PACIFIC COAST 

More serious, however, than the loss 
of nutritive properties is the danger 
from contamination by pathogenic bac¬ 
teria when the floats are situated within 
the range of sewers or other sources of 
pollution. It is well known that oysters 
imbibe disease germs with their food, and 
such germs may be taken into the human 
body with their vitality unimpaired and 
give rise to sickness. Epidemics of ty¬ 
phoid fever have been definitely traced 
to “floated” oysters which were un¬ 
doubtedly innocuous when taken from 
the saltier water. 

It will thus be seen that this feature 
of oyster growing is* not commendable, 
and is necessarily prejudicial to the best 
interest of the industry. The growth 
of the practice has been due to the igno¬ 
rance of the public; its continuance after 
its undesirable nature has frequently 
been shown is a sad commentary on our 
intelligence. 

While the entire east coast of North 
America has but a single species of oys¬ 
ter, the Pacific coast has five or six 
native species, and has been further en¬ 
riched by the one from the Atlantic. 

The most abundant of the native spe¬ 
cies, found in all the Pacific States, is 
very small and has a strong flavor. It 
is never served on the half shell, but is 


eaten in bulk, one hundred or more 
oysters often being a “portion” for one 
person. The largest and best occur in 
Willapa Bay, Washington. 

During the past 40 years immense 
quantities of Atlantic oysters have been 
transplanted to the Pacific coast, and a 
large business has sprung up which sur¬ 
passes that in the natives. It is neces¬ 
sary, however, to renew the supply an¬ 
nually, particularly in Oregon and 
Washington, where the water is of too 
low a temperature to permit the eggs of 
the transplanted oysters to develop. 
This difficulty may eventually be over¬ 
come, and an oyster fully equal to that 
of the Atlantic may be produced by the ac¬ 
climatization from the coast of Japan of 
a large oyster that is able to spawn in 
relatively cold water. Experiments to 
this end have been undertaken with 
promising results. 

In the warmer water of San Fran¬ 
cisco Bay the conditions for oyster cul¬ 
ture are different, and there a very 
extensive and peculiar kind of oyster 
farming has sprung up. The grounds 
are surrounded by stockades, principally 
for the purpose of protecting the beds 
from the inroads of strong-jawed sting¬ 
rays, which at times enter San Francisco 
Bay in schools, and would crush and de¬ 
vour large quantities of marketable oys¬ 
ters unless excluded by the stockades. 
Within the inclosures the planting, trans¬ 
planting, growing, gathering, and culling 
are done under ideal conditions. 

A large oyster, similar to our Atlantic 
species, grows in great abundance in the 
Gulf of California, and is eaten in lim¬ 
ited quantities in the adjacent parts of 
Mexico. The grounds are virgin, and are 
capable of supporting a large industry. 

HOW OUR GOVERNMENT AIDS THE 
OYSTER FARMERS 

The Federal government, as repre¬ 
sented by the Bureau of Fisheries, does 
not hatch oysters artificially and dis¬ 
tribute them by the billion for the stock¬ 
ing of public and private waters as it 
does food fishes. A much more potent 
way to increase the oyster supply is the 
one that has been followed for many 
years, to the entire satisfaction of the 
oyster-growing communities. 

This consists in practical aid to the 
States and cooperation with them in de- 


224 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 


termining the physical and biological 
characters of the oyster grounds, in sur¬ 
veying and plotting those grounds with 
a view to their allotment for oyster cul¬ 
ture, in conducting experimental and 
model planting operations, in recom¬ 
mending oyster legislation, and in giving 
disinterested expert advice on the va¬ 
rious problems that arise in the devel¬ 
opment and administration of the oyster 
fishery. 

Assistance of this kind has been ren¬ 
dered to every coastal State, and offi¬ 
cial requests for additional aid have been 
so numerous that the facilities of the 
Bureau of Fisheries have been overtaxed 
with respect to both funds and trained 
men for the work. The most recent sur¬ 
veys, experiments, and inquiries have been 
in Connecticut, New York, Delaware, 
Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, and Texas, in several of which 
States the Bureau of Fisheries and the 
Coast and Geodetic Survey have joined 
forces in the accomplishment of special 
plans. 

The beneficial results of the govern¬ 
ment’s efforts in behalf of the oyster in¬ 
dustry of the various States have been 
conspicuous and lasting. The recent re¬ 
markable increase of the oyster output 
in the Gulf States is directly attributa¬ 
ble to those efforts. In Long Island 
Sound recent experiments by the United 
States Bureau of Fisheries in the artifi¬ 
cial propagation of the oyster have given 
promising results. 

Especially noteworthy has been the 


outcome of certain experimental plant¬ 
ing operations in Louisiana. In Bara- 
taria Bay, where there had previously 
been no oyster industry, experimental 
beds laid out by experts of the Bureau 
of Fisheries yielded marketable oysters 
at the extraordinary rate of 1,500 to 
2,000 bushels per acre in two years from 
the time the cultch was deposited on bar¬ 
ren bottom. The natural consequence 
has been that all available oyster-grow¬ 
ing land has been leased by the State, 
and a great impetus has been given to 
oyster culture. 

The oysters thus produced on bottoms 
never before utilized are of high quality 
and meet with ready sale in New Or¬ 
leans, where the “raccoon” and other 
oysters from the natural beds can hardly 
be sold at one-fourth the price. 

In further pursuance of its paternal 
policy of promoting the oyster industry, 
the Bureau of Fisheries has sought to 
make known to fishermen. State officials, 
and legislatures the methods and condi¬ 
tions of oyster fishing and oyster culture 
in all parts of the world. To this end 
inquiries have been made in all foreign 
countries having important oyster re¬ 
sources. Special reports thereon have 
been issued and distributed broadcast, 
and, so far as its powers and facilities 
have permitted, the government has ap¬ 
plied the knowledge gained abroad and 
at home to the particular requirements 
of the individual States in pointing out 
the way for the most successful utiliza¬ 
tion of the oyster grounds. 




Life on the Grand Banks 


An Account of the Sailor-Fishermen Who Harvest the Shoal 
Waters of North America’s Eastern Coasts 

By FREDERICK WILLIAM WALLACE 

With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author 


I T HAD been blowing a hard Decem¬ 
ber gale for two days and the big 
liner was rolling and pitching enough 
to interfere with the comfort and equa-, 
nimity of the thousand or more passen¬ 
gers aboard her. The few hardy ones who 
appeared at table bragged of their per¬ 
formance in lounge and smoking-room 
and opined it was quite a storm; the vast 
number of the prostrate vowed it was a 
hurricane. 

In the lift of a squall of snow some 
one, peering through the great windows 
of the lounge, declared he saw a ship, a 
small schooner, close alongside. A rush 
was made for hats and wraps and the 
small party of those whom seasickness 
did not claim ventured out on the wind- 
and-spray-swept promenade deck to view 
the tiny craft which had the temerity to 
brave such winter weather so many miles 
offshore. 

The writer happened to be coming 
home from Havre, and one glance at the 
schooner to windward served to recognize 
an old friend. She was a Banks fisher¬ 
man, from Gloucester or Lunenburg pos¬ 
sibly, and she was bound west for home, 
under heavy-weather canvas. 

A GLIMPSE IN THE GALE 

Passing within a cable’s length of our 
rolling and wallowing leviathan, the little 
loo-ton schooner was storming along 
with a broil of white water shearing 
away from her sharp, round stem, and 
her reefed sails were as stiff and as white 
as marble, in the weight of the gale. 

She would top a mighty Western Ocean 
gray-back with the graceful spring of a 
steeple-chaser, bowsprit pointing to the 
gray skies and red-painted underbody 
showing clean to the heel of the foremast; 
then with an easy plunge, like a porpoise 
diving, she leaped over the cresting surge 


and drove down into the trough with but 
the masts and upper parts of the sails 
showing above the bluey-green of the 
combers. 

“They’re sailors aboard that craft,” ob¬ 
served a business man to the grizzled 
chief officer, who had been cajoled from 
his watch below by the sight. 

“Aye,” he returned slowly, “they’re 
sailors all right. She’s an American 
fisherman homeward bound.” And he 
stared at her for a minute or two, until 
she vanished in a flurry of snow. 

WHAT THE SEAMAN MEANS BY 

“sailor” 

In this age of steel hulls and steam 
and motor propulsion, the term “sailor” 
is often misapplied. All who are em¬ 
ployed at sea on board a ship are called 
“sailors” by landsmen, but seamen narrow 
the embrace of the term down to those 
who can steer, equip, repair, and handle 
the canvas of a sailing craft under sea 
conditions. All others are deck-hands 
and seamen. 

Sailors of the orthodox class even go 
a step further and designate all the per¬ 
sonnel of a steamer as “steamboat-men.” 
They consider the terms “seamen” and 
“sailor” to be sacred to ships driven by 
wind and canvas. 

It has been my privilege to sail and 
steam the oceans in many kinds of craft, 
ranging from the romantic full-rigged 
clipper ship to the oil-burning greyhounds 
of twenty-knots speed, and from the 
graceful, sea-kindly Grand Banks fishing 
schooner to the sturdy steam-trawler of 
North Sea type; but in all my voyaging I 
am inclined to the belief that the only real 
“sailors” we have today, in this mechan¬ 
ical age, are to be found in the Banks 
fishermen of North America’s Atlantic 
coasts. 



THE BOOK OF FISHES 


SIXTEEN KNOTS IN A DECEMBER BLOW 

The photograph was taken from the bowsprit of an American fishing-schooner a few moments before 

became imperative to reduce sail. 





LIFE ON THE GRAND BANKS 111 



Photograph from Phelps Studio 

IN THE HARBOR AT GLOUCESTER 


Within a few years after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, Gloucester had become the pioneer fishing 
port of the New World and a “nursery” for stalwart seamen of the American Navy—the men whose de¬ 
scendants were to make history under such leaders as John Paul Jones, Perry, Lawrence, Bainbridge, and 
Decatur. 














228 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



A BIG FELLOW: A GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE HALIBUT 
WEIGHING ABOUT 300 POUNDS 


The sailors I refer to are the crews 
of the beautiful fishing schooners that 
sail out of the fishing ports of New¬ 
foundland, the Maritime Provinces of 
Canada, and the New England States of 
America; and the ports which claim 
most of them are Lunenburg, in Nova 
Scotia, and Gloucester and Boston, 
in Massachusetts. 

THE SEA IS BEFORE HIS EYES 
FROM INFANCY 

Physically, your American deep-sea 
fishermen are strong-muscled and able 
to endure hardship. They are not slum 
or city products, but are mainly raised 
in sea-coast villages of the Canadian 
provinces and Newfoundland. 

At an early age they learn to handle 


an axe, to work on the land, 
and to rig and bait fishing 
gear. In the summer months 
the boys usually go shore¬ 
fishing or lobster-trapping. 
The sea is before their eyes 
from infancy; the roar of it 
in their ears and the smell ol 
it in their nostrils. 

At sea the Banks fisherman 
manifests his distinctiveness, 
and the splendid inherited 
qualities of the type are seen 
to advantage—daring, initia¬ 
tive, skill in seamanship, and 
ability to endure long hours 
of heavy labor and the rigors 
of seafaring in small vessels 
during the varying conditions 
of weather on the North 
Atlantic. 

It may be said that he is 
no different from the Euro¬ 
pean fisherman in this respect; 
but comparisons will show 
considerable differences. The 
deep-sea fisherman of Europe 
has practically outgrown sail, 
and works on powerful steam- 
trawlers, where ability to 
run a winch, haul and heave 
a trawl-net, use a netting 
needle, and dress and box 
fish are practically all that 
is required of him. On the 
few sailing smacks operating 
nowadays in European waters 
the trawl-net is also used as 
well as hook and line and 
All the work is done on board 


drift-net. 
the vessel. 

In the North American fisheries the 
fast-sailing and seaworthy schooner still 
remains as the prime means of produc¬ 
ing fish from the Western Atlantic 
“banks,” and the greater part of the fish¬ 
ing is done from small boats, known as 
dories, which are carried by the schooner 
and launched upon the fishing grounds. 

It is this dory fishing which makes the 
American fisherman, and by that term I 
include Canadian and Newfoundlander, a 
distinct type from his colleagues in other 
countries, and adds to his vocation a 
hazard and labor which calls for certain 
sterling qualities to surmount. 

But while backward in changing over 
to steel and steam, our fishermen have 



LIFE ON THE GRAND BANKS 


229 



SPEEDING FOR MARKET: A BANKER IN WINTER RIG 

The modern Banks fishing-schooners are undoubtedly the handsomest commercial sailing craft afloat. 
They are built of wood and range from ico to 150 feet in length, with a tonnage of from 80 to 175 tons. 


evolved a type of sailing schooner which 
is the last word in weatherly qualities and 
speed under sail, and the men who man 
these vessels are the only real sailors left 
in this age of steam. 

THREE KINDS OF BANKS FISHERIES 

There are three distinct fisheries in 
which the schooner fleets of the Western 
North Atlantic are employed, namely, 
fresh fishing, salt fishing, and halibut 
fishing. Mackerel seining also employs a 
schooner fleet during the season, but this 
is not a Banks fishery in the accepted sense 
of the term. 

As most people know, the Banks are 
vast areas of shoal water lying at vari¬ 
ous distances off the eastern coasts of the 
United States and Canada and south and 


east of Newfoundland. Upon these 
Banks, in depths ranging from 15 to 200 
fathoms, tremendous numbers of certain 
demersal species of fish are to be found 
at various seasons. Cod is the common¬ 
est variety caught; Haddock ranks sec¬ 
ond, while Hake, Pollock, Cusk, Halibut, 
Skate, Whiting, Catfish, Wolf-fish, Monk¬ 
fish, and Lumpfish are also marketed. 

FISHING WITH A LINE NEARLY HALF 
A MILE LONG 

In the offshore fisheries upon the 
Banks, none of these fish are caught by 
net unless by steam trawling. In the 
schooner fishery the long-line, misnamed 
‘Trawl” by fishermen, and hand-line are 
used exclusively. 

The long-line is, as its name implies, a 






230 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



A PEN OF CODFISH ON A SCHOONER’S DECK 
At the end of the day in the dories the work of “dressing down” the catch begins. 


long line, ranging from 2,100 to 2,400 
feet in length, and is made of thin, but 
incredibly strong, tarred cotton. 

Into this “back line,” or “ground line,” 
are spliced thinner lines, called “snoods” 
or “gangens,” at thirty- to forty-inch in¬ 
tervals. These snoods are usually from 
twenty to thirty inches long, and a strong 
steel hook is bent to each. Thus, on each 
long-line there are from 600 to 800 
snoods and hooks. 

Each long-line is coiled down in a 
wooden tub—often made by the fisher¬ 
men themselves by cutting down a flour 
barrel—and every hook has to be baited 
before the “gear” is set. 

In halibut fishing a much heavier line 
and hook are used, and as the snoods are 
spliced or bent into the ground-line at 
lengthier intervals, there is consequently 
a lesser number of hooks affixed to a coil 
of halibut gear. 

Halibut line is not coiled down in tubs, 
but secured, when not in use, by a small 
square of canvas from which four pieces 
of short rope depend. The coil is placed 
upon the canvas and the ropes are used 
to lash the gear up in a compact bun¬ 
dle, the whole being called by fisher¬ 
men “a ska^e of halibut gear” in contra¬ 


distinction to “a tub of cod or haddock 
trawl.” 

THE ACTUAL FISHING IS FROM THE DORIES 

On every Banks fishing-schooner, ex¬ 
cept hand-liners, on which the fishing is 
done from the deck, a number of fiat- 
bottomed, high-sided boats, called “do¬ 
ries,” are carried. These dories are from 
18 to 22 feet over all and their thwarts 
are removable, so as to permit their being 
“nested” one within the other upon the 
schooner’s decks when not in use. From 
six to twelve of these dories are carried 
by fishing schooners, and it is from the 
dory that the actual fishing is done. 

The modern Banks fishing-schooners 
are undoubtedly the handsomest com¬ 
mercial sailing craft afloat. They are 
built of wood and range from 100 to 150 
feet in length, with a tonnage of from 
80 to 175 tons. Their lines are fine and 
designed for speed, but weatherliness has 
been so well combined in the model that 
neither quality has been sacrificed. True, 
they are terrible craft for jumping about 
in a breeze and sea, but they seldom ship 
any heavy water on deck during a blow, 
unless “knocked down” or “tripped up” 
by squall or irregular wave. 


LIFE ON THE GRAND BANKS 


231 



MUZZLING A JIB IN A SQUALL 

In winter weather, fishing can be carried on only in the lulls between squalls. At this season schooners are 
stripped for heavy weather, topmasts and light sails being left ashore. 


Well-ballasted and drawing a lot of 
water aft, the Banks schooner stands up 
to a great spread of sail, the main-boom 
in some vessels being 75 feet long. The 
big mainsail is the largest piece of canvas 
on a fisherman and it is carried until the 
whole strength and skill of twenty to 
twenty-five men is required to make it 
fast in a strong breeze. 

EVERY BANKS SCHOONER IS A SEAFARING 
DEMOCRACY 

Every Banks fishing schooner is a sort 
of seafaring democracy. The crew works 
the ship on a cooperative basis, with the 
skipper as sailing and fishing “boss.” In 
Canadian and American craft in which 
the writer sailed, the gang were shipped 
on the share system, their remuneration 
consisting of an equal share of the pro¬ 
ceeds of the catch after the bills for 
victualing, ice, salt, bait, cook’s wages, 
and other incidentals had been paid. 

The schooner took a quarter or a fifth 
of the gross stock, and this repaid her 
owner for the hire of the vessel. Out of 
this share came the cost of insurance and 
upkeep, but in good seasons, prior to 
1914, many schooners paid their cost of 


construction within twelve months. In 
those days, however, a Banker could be 
built for 112,000; nowadays they cost 
nearly ^50,000. 

The share system has had many vari¬ 
ants. Formerly, in some vessels, it was 
“even shares,” where all hands drew the 
same amount. In other craft it was “by 
the count,” where each dory kept count 
of the number of fish caught and the dory 
catching the greatest number drew the 
highest share. The lucky dory was 
known as the “high line” or “high dory”; 
the lowest count was “low dory,” and in 
some ships if a pair of fishermen came 
“low dory” too often they were “fired.” 

Both of these systems had their draw¬ 
backs, and of late years so many new 
methods of dividing the proceeds of the 
catch have been instituted in the different 
vessel fisheries that it would be confus¬ 
ing, and possibly erroneous, to quote 
any one as being the standard. 

I have been on voyages where the men 
drew $jo each for a week’s work, and on 
others where they made but $45 in two 
months. The Goddess of Luck has 
something to do with the fisherman’s re¬ 
muneration, but the men who fish steadily 


232 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



BAITING HALIBUT LINES WITH FRESH HERRING 
There are three kinds of fisheries on the Banks—salt fishing, fresh fishing, and halibut fishing. 


throughout the year with hard-working 
skippers usually make a good income, 
though it is never commensurate with the 
risks they take. 

The crew, or “gang,” of a Banker runs 
from sixteen to twenty-five men. A 
schooner “running ten dories” would 
have a crew sufficient to man ten dories 
with two fishermen in each. In addition to 
these twenty men, there are the skipper, 
the cook, a deck-hand, and, if the vessel is 
an auxiliary, an engineer. In some vessels 
neither deck-hand nor engineer is carried. 

NO FAVORITES ON A BANKS SCHOONER 

All navigating is done by the skipper. 
The men are primarily fishermen, but 
they are under the skipper’s orders and 
must help to sail the vessel, to steer and 
keep a lookout, and to set and furl sail. 

On passages to and from the Banks, 
the fishermen take regular turns in stand¬ 
ing a watch at wheel and lookout. With 
a gang of twenty men and two men to a 
watch, this period is not a very long one, 
as a rule, but in bitter winter weather, 
with a hard breeze blowing, an hour 
at wheel and lookout is long enough. 
I have known times when ten minutes at 
the wheel required relief to thaw out 
fingers and toes numbed with zero frost. 

When sail has to be set or made fast. 


all hands are called. If the men are 
asleep and it is only a small job that re¬ 
quires four or five hands, the whole 
crowd is turned out to do it. By doing 
this, no favorites are made and no one 
can complain that he is being imposed 
upon. I have seen twenty men roused 
from slumber to take in a jib—a job three 
fellows could have done—and the skipper 
saw to it that no man loafed below. 

During the run-off to the “grounds” 
the fishermen are busy overhauling their 
fishing gear. Each man has his dory- 
mate and his particular dory and they 
divide the work between them. It is in¬ 
cumbent upon them to have their lines 
in good shape and their dory properly 
equipped when the skipper sings out, 
“Bait up!”, the schooner having reached 
the Bank to be fished. 

THE SOUNDING LEAD IS THE SKIPPEr’s 
OTHER EYE 

Six to eight tubs, or skates, of gear 
have to be kept in order and baited by 
the two dory-mates—a task which calls 
for much skill and deftness of fingers, 
when some 2,000 hooks have to be baited 
with pieces of herring, squid, or capelin 
every time a “set” is made. 

The passage to the Banks may be a run 
of from fifty to five hundred miles and it 


LIFE ON THE GRAND BANKS 


233 


is usually made in the quickest possible 
time. 

When the vessel has run her distance, 
the “spot” the skipper has been making 
for is found by the lead. The sounding 
lead is a fishing skipper’s other eye and 
he is usually an adept in determining his 
position by means of it. 

While there are many fishing captains 
who can navigate by solar and stellar ob¬ 
servations, yet the majority find their 
way about by dead-reckoning, using com¬ 
pass, chart, log, and lead, and their ac¬ 
curacy is often startling. 

The sample of the bottom brought up 
by the soap or tallow on the lead and the 
depth of water give most skippers an 
exact position after two casts. 

If the gear has been baited and the 
weather is favorable, the skipper sings 
out, “Dories over!” The dory-mates 
who hold the two top dories on the port 
and starboard “nests” prepare their boats 
for going overside by shipping the 
thwarts and jamming the bottom-plugs in. 

Oars, pen-boards, bailer, water-jar, 
bait-knife, gurdy-winch, bucket, gaff, sail 
and mast, and all other boat and fishing 
impedimenta are placed in .each little 
craft, and it is swung up out of the nest 
and overside by means of tackles depend¬ 
ing from the fore and main shrouds. 

SETTING THE LINES 

Two fishermen secure their tubs of 
baited lines and jump into the dory, which 
is allowed to drift astern. The painter 
is made fast to a pin in the schooner’s 
taffrail and the dory is towed along by 
the schooner. As the other dories are 
launched, they are dropped astern, made 
fast to each other, and towed by the 
schooner. 

When all the dories are overside, the 
skipper, at the wheel of the schooner, de¬ 
termines the direction in which he wants 
to set his lines, and the dories are let go, 
one at a time, as the vessel sails along. 
A schooner “running” ten dories will have 
them distributed at equal distances along 
a four or five-mile line and Number One 
dory is often out of sight from the posi¬ 
tion of Number Ten. 

When the last dory has been dropped, 
the skipper will either “jog” down the 
line again or remain hove-to in the 
vicinity of the weather dory while the 
men are fishing. 



A TYPICAL FISHING VESSEL SKIPPER 


In the dories, when the schooner has 
let them go, one fisherman ships the 
oars and pulls the boat in the direction 
given him by the skipper, while the other 
prepares the gear for “setting.” 

The end line of the first “tub” of baited 
long-line is made fast to a light iron 
anchor to which a stout line and buoy-keg 
is attached. This is thrown over into the 
water, and the fisherman, standing up in 
the stern of the dory with the tub of 
long-line before him, proceeds to heave 
the baited gear into the sea by means of a 
short stick which he holds in his right 
hand. 

BAITED LINES OVERBOARD 

With this “heaving stick” he dexter¬ 
ously whirls the coils of line and hooks 
out of the tub and the long-line goes to 
the sea-bottom. 

Three or four tubs, the lines joined 
together, may be set in this fashion, and 
another anchor and buoy is made fast to 
the last end. The long-line now lies on 
the bottom of the sea and is prevented 
from drifting or snarling up in bottom or 
tidal currents by the anchors at each end. 

The fishermen in the dory hang on to 
the last anchor until it is time to haul the 
gear, or they may leave it altogether and 





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LIFE ON THE GRAND BANKS 


235 


pull back aboard the schooner again, leav¬ 
ing the location of their lines to be 
marked by a flag or “black-ball” thrust 
into the buoy-keg attached to the anchors 
at each end. 

The lines may be “set” for periods 
varying from thirty minutes to half a 
day. In the latter case the fishermen 
will be towed back to their gear again 
by the schooner and cast adrift when the 
buoys marking their respective lines 
appear in sight. 

The picking up of these tiny buoys 
and flags, scattered over five or six miles 
of ocean, is quite a knack, and the fishing 
skippers seem to possess an uncanny 
sense of location in finding them. The 
writer has known schooners being forced 
to leave their gear in the water and run 
to port for shelter in gales of wind, and 
to return two or three days afterward 
and pick it up again without much 
trouble. 

When ready to haul the long-line, the 
fishermen insert a lignum-vitae roller in 
the gunwale of the dory and pull the 
anchor and buoy up. 

The end of the line fast to the anchor 
is detached and the fisherman, standing 
in the bow of the dory, commences to 
haul the long-line out of the water. His 
dory-mate stands immediately behind, 
and as the line comes in it is his job to 
coil it back into the tub again after 
knocking off the untouched bait. 

A VOLLEY OF “sLATs” MEANS POOR 

'hauls 

The fisherman hauling the line over the 
roller disengages the caught fish by a 
dexterous twist of the arm. This back- 
handed jerk whips the hook out of the 
jaws of the fish and it flops into the bot¬ 
tom of the dory. Fish which cannot be 
cleared in this manner are passed on to 
the man at the tub, who twists the hook 
out by taking a few turns of the snood 
around the “gob stick,” which he thrusts 
into the mouth of the fish. 

Unmarketable species—Sculpins, Skate, 
Dogfish, etc.—are knocked off into the sea 
by a vicious slat against the dory gun¬ 
wale. On a quiet summer’s day there 
is no more disheartening sound to a fish¬ 
ing skipper than to hear a continuous 
volley of “slats” coming from the line of 
dories. It means that the Dogfish are 
swarming on the grounds, and that they 


have taken the hooks intended for better 
fish. 

When the lines have been hauled and 
the last anchor is up, the fishermen row 
or sail down to the schooner, which is 
generally hovering around like a hen 
keeping guard over her chickens. The 
dory rounds up alongside the vessel, the 
painter is caught by some one aboard her, 
and, after handing up their tubs of long- 
lines, the two fishermen pitch out their 
fish upon the schooner’s decks. 

Certain sections of the deck have been 
penned off for the reception of the catch, 
which prevents the fish from sliding to 
leeward when the schooner rolls. 

THE JOB OF DRESSING DOWN THE CATCH 

At the end of the day, when all hands 
are aboard, the work of “dressing down” 
the catch commences. The fish are split 
and gutted, and some species are be¬ 
headed, by the fishermen, standing at 
tables rigged up on deck. The dressed 
fish are then washed in tubs of salt water 
and consigned to the hold, where they are 
packed away on chopped ice. 

If the vessel is salt-fishing, the fish are 
piled upon each other in the hold-pens 
and liberally covered with coarse salt. 

After the catch has been cleaned and 
stowed away, the men bait up their gear 
for the morrow’s “set.” If the fish are 
biting freely and the catch is heavy, the 
fisherman’s day is a long one. Dories 
will often be swung overside before sun¬ 
rise and the men will finish by midnight. 

There is very little sleep to be got on 
the Banks when the weather is fine and 
the vessel is “on fish,” and the writer 
remembers one occasion in winter fishing 
on a market fisherman when the gang 
were kept hard at it from Sunday night 
to Thursday morning with but an hour’s 
sleep each night. On Thursday a gale of 
wind came along and it was hailed with 
pleasure, as an opportunity to “lay off” 
and catch up on slumber. 

SUMMER FOG WORST ENEMY 

The foregoing description is that of 
the life on a market or fresh-fishing 
schooner running her catches to port for 
consumption in a fresh or smoked state. 

The “marketmen” seldom remain at 
sea longer than ten days, but life aboard 
these craft demands the greatest skill and 
hardihood on the part of skipper and 


236 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



REPAIRING A TORN SAIL 


crew. They waste no time in getting to 
the fishing Banks, and usually go tearing 
out under a press of sail. Dories are 
hoisted over before dawn, and the men 
often fish all night, with torches aflare on 
the dory gunwales. They will go over¬ 
side in pretty rough weather and will re¬ 
main out until the last minute, in the face 
of fogs and squalls. 

In summer, fog is the fisherman’s 
worst enemy. Dories may be strung out 
when it is fine and clear, and before they 
can be picked up again they are blank¬ 
eted from view in a wet, sight-defying 
mist. 

The skippers are wonderfully clever at 
locating the hidden dories, but it often 
happens that some cannot be found, and 
their names are listed with the yearly 
death toll of the Banks. 

But there are not many casualties, 
considering the frequency of the fogs, and 
I can remember one occasion when 56 
dories were reported astray from their 
vessels and all were either picked up by 
other schooners or else rowed in from 
the Banks to the land. Some of the 
distances stray fishermen have rowed in 
dories seem incredible, but a pull of 150 
to 175 miles in rough weather and without 
food is not an unusual accomplishment. 


A few years ago, during April, two 
fishermen got astray from their vessel on 
Quero Bank and were picked up fourteen 
days afterward 30 miles northwest of St. 
Pierre. They had but a little cake and 
some water to sustain them during that 
period and only managed to keep from 
freezing to death by constant rowing. 
One man’s feet and hands were black 
from frostbite when picked up. 

THE SIREN STRIKES TERROR 

Fog inspires fear in fishermen by rea¬ 
son of the danger of being run down by 
steamers. Many schooners have been 
sent to the bottom thus, and the roar of 
a steamer’s siren close aboard in foggy 
weather will have a crowd of fishermen 
out of their bunks quicker than anything 
else I know of. 

The living quarters in fishing-schooners 
are in forecastle and cabin. These apart¬ 
ments are lined with bunks—possibly six¬ 
teen single bunks forward and four to 
six double bunks aft. 

The galley is located in the after part 
of the forecastle and the mess-table is 
fitted between the foremast and the wind¬ 
lass-pawl-post. All hands eat their meals 
in the forecastle. 



LIFE ON THE GRAND BANKS 


237 





“ALL HANDS TO THE MAIN-SHEET” 

The fishermen practically live in oilskins and rubber boots while at sea. 


238 


THE BOOK OF FISHES 



A NEST OF DORIES AND BULWARKS COVERED WITH ICE 


The skipper lives aft, in the cabin. In 
some schooners he has a little room to 
himself, but in a good many he sleeps in 
an open bunk like the fishermen. The 
galley stove keeps the forecastle warm, 
and a small “bogey,” or base-burner, 
heats the cabin. 

As fishermen are constantly wet, the 
stoves are kept continually fired to dry 
out sodden clothing. 

Though it is a hard, cold, and hazard¬ 
ous existence, yet the fishermen’s life has 
some compensations. The cooks carried 


are masters of the culi¬ 
nary art and the meals 
provided are of the most 
luxurious description. 
All the staples and all 
the luxuries go aboard a 
fishing vessel, and the 
scale of victualing is Bilt- 
more style without the 
silver and cut-glass. 

A fisherman is always 
hungry, and in addition 
to three square meals per 
diem, he indulges in a 
“mug-up” between times 
from the “shack locker,” 
or quick-lunch cupboard 
in the forecastle. Tea 
and coffee are always on 
the stove. 

With stoves going be¬ 
low, it is always warm 
and pleasant in cabin 
and forecastle, and a 
fisherman’s bunk, with 
a good thick quilt or 
blanket and a straw mat¬ 
tress, makes a snug sleep¬ 
ing place. One never 
sheds many clothes on 
retiring; the discarding 
of boots and jacket is 
enough. 

The cabins and fore¬ 
castles are clean and well 
kept. Vermin is a fisher¬ 
man’s horror, and the 
writer has known men of 
questionable cleanliness to be sent ashore. 


THE RACE TO MARKET 

A smart vessel is a fisherman’s pride, 
and he will never lose an opportunity to 
try her out against other craft. Your 
fisherman is a sail-dragger. He believes 
in carrying his canvas to the last minute, 
just for the fun of seeing her go. To be 
one of a fleet of Banksmen “swinging off” 
for market in a stiff breeze is to confirm 
one in the belief that the American fisher¬ 
man is the finest sailor of the present day. 


F 


N I S 



INDEX 


Extensive biographies and color plates of fishes are listed also in 
front pages of The Book of Fishes 


A 

Page 

Age of fish, Scales show.90-91, 93, ill. 81 

Alaska, Salmon fisheries of.199, 202, 205, 209, 210, 211 

Albacore, Great, Tuna known as. 33 

Alewife {Pomolobus pseudoharengus) .5,27,60-61, 

(color plate) 47 

Alligator Gar.(legend) 106 

Allison, James A.189, 194 

All ison’s Tuna {Tkunnus allisoni) .140, 142 

Amhe.T {Seriola dumerili) .140, 183, ill. 185, 188, 

(color plate) 155 

American Lobster (//omarMJ am^'rfcanMJ’).15, 16, 17, 19, 

21, 67, 69, 159, (color plate) 54 

American Museum of Natural History, New York City.... 19 

Amia lives in West Indian Conch. 130 

Anatomy of the oyster.ill. 214 

Anadromous fishes.5, 23 

Anchovies, Schools of. 162 

Anemones on ocean floor.ill. 138, 171 

Angel-Fish.(color plate) 176 

Angel-Fish, Blue {Angelichthys isabelila) .163, 164, 

(color plate) 176 

Annelida, Tube-forming. 19 

UApache, Sea-going motor yacht. 189 

Arkansas, Fishing in.ill. 108 

Artificial propagation of fishes.25, 205, ill. 34, 91, 107 

Atlantic Highlands. 19 

Atlantic Salmon (Salmo Salar).. .5, 8, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30, 63, 91, 

(color plate) 50 

Australian Lung-fish. 90 

Avernus, Lake, Oyster cultivation at.(legend) 218 

B 

Bahama Islands.142, 151, 162, 189 

Bainbridge, William.(legend) 227 

Baird Piscicultural Preserve. 205 

Bait.35-36, 37, 88, 23s, ill. 78, 232 

Balmoral Cannery, Skeena River, B. C.ill. 207 

Baltimore, Oyster fleet lying off.ill. 221 

Banks, The.1,9, 36, 195, 225, 229, 232, 235, 236 

Barataria Bay, La. 224 

Barbour. 30 

Barnacles {Balanus) .19, 217, ill. 129 

Barnegat Bay, N. J.ill. 70 

Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda) .134, 137,' 139, 167, 170, 

ill. 168, (color plate) 143 

Bass, Black.89, 95, (color plate) 112 

Bass, Black Sea. 31 

Bass, Calico {Pomoxis sparoides) .90, 96, ill. 102, 

(color plate) 114 

Bass, Cannibal.ill. 84 

Bass, Channel. ill. 32 

Bass family.25, 77, 89, ill. 84 

Bass, Large-mouth Black {Micropterus salmoides) .90, 95, 

ill. 84, (color plate) 112 

Bass, Rock (Ambloplites rupestris) .89, 90, 95-96, ill. loi, 

(color plate) 113 

Bass, Sea {Centropiistes striatus)... .37, 70, 164, (color plate) 73 

Bass, Small-mouth Black {Micropterus dolomieu) .95, ill. 87, 

(color plate) 112 

Bass, Striped {Roccus lineatus) .5, 24, 31, 35, 36, 69-70, 90, 

(color plate) 72 

Batchelder, A. G. 189 

Bay of Florida. 183 

Beau Gregorys. 183 

Bermuda islands.5, 139, 140, 175 

Bigelow, R. P. 30 

Bimini, Bahama Is.189, 191, 193, 194, ill. 192 

Black Angel-Fish {Pomacantlius arcuatus) .(color plate) 176 

Black Bass..89, 95, ill. 92, (color plate) 112 

Black Drum, destructive to oysters. 216 

Black Grouper {Mycteroperca bonaci) .139, (color plate) 146 

Black Sea Bass. 31 

Black-tip Shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) . 183 

Blessing the fish o» the sea, London..ill. 6 

Blue Angel-Fish {Angelichthys isabelita) .163, 164, 

(color plate) 176 

Blue-cheeked Sunfish. 89 

Blue Sharks.... I74 

Blue Striped Grunt {Haemulon sciurus) .185, ill. 132, 

(color plate) 181 


Page 

Blueback Salmon.199, 200, 20i 

Bluefish {Pomatomus saltatrix) .27, 31, 35-36, 70-71, 195, 

(color plate) 74 

Boats, Fishing.ill. 16, 18, 20, 26, 28, 33, 34, 58, 60, 64, 66, 

70, 90, 108, 136, 137, 161, 185, 197, 221, 222, 226-234, 


237, 238 


I.V../11, .^/j 111. 1 vj, xo 

Boston State House, The “Sacred Codfish” in.195, ill. 3 

Bottle, Oysters growing within a yeast-powder.ill. 219 

Boulanger, G. A..... 90 

Bowfin, Mudfish or.89, 90 

Branch Herring. 5 

Brazil, Coast of.142, 163 

Bream a fish-eating fish. 89 

Breathing apparatus of fish.ii, 13 

Breeding...13, I5. 133- 139. I99 

Brighton Aquarium, England. 90 

Brook Trout {Salvelinus fontinalis) .97, 99, ill. 98, 

(color plate) 116 

Brown Shark {Carcharhinus milberti) . 183 

Bryozoa, Lacelike. 19 

Buffalo-fishes.88, 195 

Buffalo Trunkfish {Lactophrys trigonus) .166-167, 

(color plate) 179 

Bullhead, Common {Ameiurus nebulosus) .93, 95, 

(color plate) 111 

Burbot a fish-eating fish. 89 

Bureau of Fisheries, United States, Work of.9, 11, 19, 25, 

30, 79, 84, 203, 205, 210, 211, 223, 224, ill. 26, 34, 91 

Butter-fish {Poronotus triacanthus) .27, 61, 63, 

(color plate) 49 

Butterfly Fish {Chaetodon ocellatus) .132, 163, 164, 

(color plate) 177 

Buzzards Bay, Mass. 9 


Calico Bass {Pomoxis sparoides) .90, 96, ill. 102, 

(color plate) 114 

California Flying Fish. 35 

Camouflage among fishes.15, 130, 163, 173-174, 183, 184 

Canal, Jumna: India.(legend) 160 

Cannibal Bass.ill. 84 

Canning lobster meat.ill. 13 

Canning Salmon.ill. 208 

Canoe, Indian fishing from a.ill. 82 

Canon City, Colo., oldest fish remains from. 27 

Cans of young trout for planting in a Colorado Lake... . ill. 107 

Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, waters. Fish from.ill. 33, 66 

Capelin, Fishwives beheading: Island of St. Pierre.ill. 36 

Carangiidae, or Crevally family. 170 

Carp a plant-eating fish.89, 90 

Catfish.. .5, II, 77, 93, 95, 137, 195, 229, ill. 108, 160, 

(color plate) in 

Catfish, Spotted {Ictalurus punctatus). .93, 95, (color plate) in 

Caviar, The source of.ill. 15 

Cazadero Dam, Columbia River, Ore.ill. 203, 210 

Cephalopods, highest class of molusca. 187 

Certain Citizens of the Warm Sea. By Louis L. 

Mowbray. 127 

Channel Bass.ill. 32 

Channel Catfish. 89 

Charlevoix, Mich.ill. 90 

Chesapeake Bay., .9, 218, 221, ill. 56 

Chestertown, N. Y., Perch from..ill. 96 

Children as fishermen.ill. 14, 70, 78, 97, 105, 140 

Chinook Salmon.5, 195, ill. 196, 201 

Chubs a fish food. 77 

Clams used as bait. 37 

Cleaning fish, St. John’s, Newfoundland.ill. 17 

“Cochina” nickname for Queen Trigger-Fish.(legend) 179 

Codfish {Gadus callarias)... .7, 8, 9, 17, 19, 27, 38, 229, ill. 230, 

(color plate) 39 

“Codfish, Sacred,” in the Boston State House.;. 195, ill. 3 

Coho or Silver Salmon. 199 

Colorado Lake, Cans of trout for planting in a.ill. 107 

Columbia River, Ore.5, 199, ill. 203, 210 

Common Bullhead {Ameiurus nebulosus) .93, 95, 

(color plate) 111 


239 






























































































































240 


INDEX FOR THE BOOK OF FISHES 


Page 

Common Eel {Anguilla rostrata) .5, 8, 35, 77, 109-110, 

(color plate) 126 

Common Grunt. 185 

Common Squeteague {Cynoscion regalis) .9, 24, 27, 31, 35, 

69, 19s, ill. 70, (color plate) 72 

Common Sturgeon {Acipenser sturio) . 5, 7, 55-56, 77, 

(color plate) 42 

Common Whitefish (Corif^onMJ’.77, 90, 93, 

106-107, 195. (color plate) 122 

Conch shell.17, 130-131, 191, ill. 138 

Conger Eel. 7,8 

Connecticut River. 24 

Cooking fish in hot-water hole.ill. 79 

Coral reefs.130, 139, 164 

“Cove Oyster,” Origin of name.(legend) 221 

Cow Pilot or Sergeant Major {Abudejduf saxatilis). .\6\, 183, 

184, (color plate) 182 

Cowfish (Lactophryus tricornis) .167, (color plate) 179 

Crab discarding shell.ill. 22 

Crabs as bait.35, 36. 37, 174 

Crappie {Pomoxis annularis) .89, 96, (color plate) 114 

Crater Lake, Crater Lake National Park, Ore.ill. 85 

Crawfish or Spiny Lobster {Panulirus argus) .159, 

(color plate) 153 

Crayfish part of food supply.81, 88, 89 

Crevally family or Carangiidae. 170 

Croakers part of food supply. 27 

Crustaceans as fish food.19, 89, IS9, 217, ill. 129 

Cuba, Island of.167, 179 

Cuckold {Lactophrys triqueter) .167, (color plate) 170 

Curious Inhabitants of the Gulf Stream. By Dr. John 

T. Nichols. 163 

Cusk {Brosmius brosme) .27, 56, 229, (color plate) 43 

Customhouse Tower, Boston.ill. 16 

Cutthroat Trout.(legend) 97 


D 


Darters are food for fish.77, 98 

Decatur, Stephen.(legend) 227 

Delaware Bay.9, 24, 27 

Delaware River, N. J., fisheries. i 

Delaware River, N. J., Sturgeons from the.ill. 10 

Denver, Colo. 29 

Desmarest. 90 

Devil-fish {Manta birostris) .187, 193, 194, ill. 186, 190, 192 

Devil-Fishing in the Gulf Stream. By John Oliver 

La Gorce. 187 

Digby, Nova Scotia: Drying fish at.ill. 9 

Dimock, Messrs. A. W. and Julian A .(legend) 128 

Dog, or Chum Salmon. 199 

Dog Salmon, Magnified scale to show age of.ill. 81 

Dogfish, unmarketable fish.137, 235 

Dolphin {Coryphaena hippurus) 135, 140, 174, (color plate) 150 


“Dressing down” the catch.235, ill. 230 

Drum, Fresh-water {Aplodinotus grunniens) .89, 107, 109, 

(color plate) 123 

“Drummer” Weakfish, or Squeteague called. 35 

Drying fish at Digby, Nova Scotia.ill. 9 

Drying nets near the Virginia capes.ill. 62 


E 


East River, N. Y. 24 

Eastern Pickerel {Esox reticulatus) .31, loo-ioi, 

(color plate) 119 

Eel, Common {Anguilla rostrata) .5, 8, 35, 77, 109-110, 

(color plate) 126 

Eel, Conger. 7,8 

Eel, European.5, 90 

Eels, spawning habits.5, 126 

Eggs and milt removed from fish for artificial propagation 

205, ill. 34, 211 


Eggs, Salmon, ready for shipment.ill. 200 

Eigermann, C. H. 30 

Elver, European.5, 110, 126 

Enemies of fishes. 7, 8 

Entomostraca, Minute. 89 

European Eel.5, 90 

European Elver.5, no, 126 

European Trout. 90 

Evermann, B. VV'. 30 

Eyes, Why fish have spherical. n 


F 


Fauna, Marine and land, compared.22-23 

Feeding fish, Man.ill. 89 

Fierasferer lives in the Sea-pudding. 131 

Fighting fish of Siam. 15 

Filefish, Flat-sided. 166 

Fish bitten in two by larger fish.127, ill. 134 

Fish-eating fish.89, 183 

Fish eating from man’s hand.ill. 89 


Page 

Fish hatchery experts removing eggs and milt from fishes. . ill. 34 

Fish ladder, Cazadero Dam, Columbia River.ill. 203 

Fish scale. Magnified to show age.. ill. 81 

Fish scaling a seven-foot wall.ill. 160 

Fisher, Carl G....194 

Fisherman hauling in his net, A Nova Scotia.. ill. 2 

Fisherman mending his nets. An Atlantic.ill. 14 

Fishermen.77, 195, 212, 228, 233, 235, 236, 238, ill. 10, 14, 

IS, 18, 20, 28, 31, 33, $8, 64, 66, 79, 80, 82, 83, 85, 86, 88, 
90, 108, 134, 197, 228, 231, 232, 234, 237 

Fishermen, Game..ill. 32, I 37 , 188. 199. 192 

Fishwives of St. Pierre..• • • • 3 ^ 

Fisherwomen.ill. 70, 136 

Fishery industries.27, 30, 77, 81, 228, 229, ill. 9, 10, 12, 

13, IS, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 28, 30. 31, 36, s6, 57, 58, 64, 
90, 197, 200, 201, 207, 208, 21S, 221, 222, 226-234 
Fishes and Fisheries of Our North Atlantic Sea¬ 
board. By John Oliver La Gorce. i 

Fishing fleet near Customhouse Tower, Boston.ill. 16 

“Fishing Rod” of Ojibway Indians.ill. 82 

Fishing-schooners. 230, 231, 236, ill. 226, 229, 230-234, 236-238 

Fishing tackle.31. 35 , 37 , 88 , ill. 32, 70, 78, 79, 80, 82, 96, 

97,188 

Flatfish (Flounders and Halibuts) Origin and growth of.. i, 3, 17 

Fleet, Fishing, near Customhouse Tower, Boston.ill. 16 

Fleet, Oyster lying off Baltimore.ill. 221 

Florida, Coast of.127, 130, 131, 135, 139, 140, 142, IS9, 

163, 173, 174, 187, 189, 194 

Flounder family.i, IS, 27, 29, 38, 163, 184 

Flunder, Summer {Paralichthys dentatus) .i, 27, 38, S5, 

(color plate) 40 

Flounder, Winter {Pseudopleuronectes americanus). . . . i, 38, SS, 

(color plate) 40 

Flying fish.8, 35, 150, 174 

Fog, Summer.233-236 

Foods of fishes.88-89, I74 

Forbes, Professor S. A. 88 

Forked tails. Why fish have. 173 

Four-Eyed Fish {Chaetodon capistratus) .(color plate) 177 

Fraser River, British Columbia.199, 203. 209 

French Angel-Fish {Pomacanthus paru) .(color plate) 176 

French Grunt. 185 

Fresh-water Drum {Aplodinotus grunniens) .89, 107, 109, 

(color plate) 123 

Frog culture.81, 88 

Fur-seal, Herd of Alaskan.ill. 206 

Fusaro, Lago: Italy.(legend) 218 


Gar {Mycteroperca microlepis) .139, (color plate) 146 

Game fish.31, 33, 33, 36, 37 , 131, i 33 , US, i 39 , 140, 191, 

193, ill- 32, 133, 136, 137 

Ganges, Upper, River: India.(legend) 160 

Gar, a fish-eating fish.89, 90, ill. 106 

Gar Pike has lung-like air bladder. 13 

Georges Bank. 9 

German Carp, Fish misnamed. 195 

Giant Octopus {Octopus punctatus) . 187 

Giant Sunfish, or Mola. 130 

Gilbert, Dr. Charles H. 202 

Gill nets. 77 

Gizzard-shad. Sg 

Gloucester Harbor, Mass.228, ill. 227 

Gobies, Gray. 163 

Golden Orfe. go 

Goode. G. Brown. 30 

Gorge below Niagara Falls, Fishing in.ill. 83 

Grand Banks. 225 

Grand Menan, New Brunswick. 9 

Gray Gobies. 163 

Gray Snapper {Neomenis griseus) .171, ill. 141 

Grayling a game fish. 31 

Great Albacore, Tuna known as. 33 

Great Lakes are reservoirs of fish food.77, 81, 193, ill. 90 

Great South Bay, New York. 183 

Green Moray {Lycodontis funebris). . 163, 167, (color plate) 177 

Green Turtle {Chelonia mydas) .142, (color plate) 138 

Grimsby, England, World’s leading fishing port. 27 

Ground Sharks {Carcharhinus) .174, 183 

Grouper, Black {Mycteraperca bonaci). . . 139, (color plate) 146 
Grouper, Nassau {Epinephelus striatus). . i3g, (color plate) 143 
Grouper or Rock Fish family. . 130, 139, (color plates) 143-146 

Grouper, Red {Epinephelus niorio) .139. (color plate) 143 

Grunt, Blue Striped {Ilaemulon sciurus).. 183, (color plate) i8i 

Grunt family.139, 184-183, ill. 132, (color plate) 181 

Grunt, Yellow.183, ill. 132, (color plate) 181 

Gudger, E. W. 30 

Gulf of Mexico. 103 

Gulf of St. Lawrence Halibut.ill. 228 

Gulf Stream.127, 131, 140, 142, 139, 163, 173, 187, 191 

H 

Haddock {Melanogrammus aegili/inus)..8, 9, 17, 24, 29, 38, 229, 

TT I f J n u 39 

Hake a food fish.27, 229 















































































































































INDEX FOR THE BOOK OF FISHES 


241 


Page 

Halibut (ffippoglossus hippoglossus) .1,7,15, 55, 77, 229, ill. 228, 

(color plate) 41 

Halibut industry.ill. 28, 230 

“Ham and Eggs” from Chesapeake Bay: Menhaden.ill. 56 

Hammerhead Shark. 191 

Hampton, Va., Oyster culture at.ilL 222 

Handling Tuna, St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia.ill. 18 

Harding, President Warren G.71, 133 

Hatcheries, Fish..203, 205, ill. 202 

Hauling nets down to the sea.ill. 4 

La Have Bank. 9 

Hawksbill Turtle {Eretmochelys imbricata) .142, 159, 191. 

(color plate) 158 

Hearing, Fish’s power of. ii 

Hermit Crabs.(legend) 151, ill. 138 

Herrick, Dr. F. H.I9, 25 

Herring {Clupea harengus) .7, 8, 9, 13, 15, 27, 61, 136, 163, 

195, ill. 232, (color plate) 47 

Herring, Branch. 5 

Herring-Hog.191, 193 

Herring industry.ill. 12, 58 

Herring prepared for smoking: Lockeport, Nova Scotia., .ill. 12 

Hermaphrodite, Some species are. 130 

Hickory Shad. 9 

Hind, Rock {Epinephelus adscensionis) .164-165, 

(color plate) 180 

Hind, Spotted. 165 

Hogfish, Spanish or Lady-fish.ill. 170 

Holothurian, Sea-cucumber or Sea-pudding is a. 131 

Horse Mackerel, Tuna known as. 33 

Housatonic River. 24 

Hubbards Cove, Nova Scotia.ill. 31 

Hampton Roads. 36 

Hudson River.24, 36, 195 

Humpback Salmon.199, 200, 201, 202, 209 

Huxley. 8 


I 


Ice, Fishing through hole in. 

Icthyologists. 

Index, Wash., Scene near.... 

Indian fishing with spear: Minnesota 

Indian River Inlet, Fla. 

Island of St. Pierre: Fishing industry 


....ill. 86 
9, 30, 164 
.. ..ill. 80 
... . ill. 82 


35 


ill. 36 


J 

Jack, Amber (Seriola dumerili) .140, 183, ill. 185, 188, 

(color plate) 155 

Jack family.130, 139—140 

Jack, Yellow, or Runner (Carnax ruber). . 140, (color plate) 155 

Japanese Crab. 159 

Japanese oyster crop.ill. 215 

Jewfish, Giant.164, ill. 167 

Jones, John Paul.(legend) 227 

Jones, William S. 3 5 

Jordan, David Starr...27, 30 

Jumna Canal and River, India.(legend) 160 


K 


Kamchatka Peninsula. 

Karluk River, Alaska. 

Key West, Fla. 

Killer Whale, The Great VV’olf of the Sea 

Killies eaten by Bluefish. 

King Salmon.. 

Kingfish {Menticirrhus saxatilis) . 

Kingfish {Scomberomorus regalis) . 

Kotcher, Com. Charles W. 


. 195 

. 209 

-139, 142, 187, 195 

.137, ill. 162 

. 36 

. 195 

37, 71, (color plate) 76 
. 139, (color plate) 149 
. 189 


Ladder, Fish: Cazadero Dam, Ore.ill. 203 

Lady-fish or Spanish Hogfish.ill. 17° 

Lago Fusaro, Italy...(legend) 218 

La Gorce, John Oliver. Devil-Fishing in the Gulf Stream. . 187 
La Gorce, John Oliver. Fish and Fisheries of Our North 

Atlantic Seaboard. i 

Lake Avernus, Italy.^.. (legend) 218 

Lake Chautauqua Muskellunge {Esox okiensis) .105-106, 

ill. 105, (color plate) 121 

Lake, Medina, Texas.(legend) 84 

Lake Michigan. 88 

Lake Sturgeon {Acipenser rubicundus) .104-105, 

(color plate) 120 

Lake Trout (Cristivomer namaycush) .29, 99-100, 

(color plate) 117 

LandingGiantTuna Fish, Cape Breton Island,Nova Scotia.ill.33 

Landing Tuna, Hubbards Cove, Nova Scotia..ill. 31 

Lantern, Oysters growing on old...ill. 218 

Large-mouth Black Bass {Micropterus saimoides) .90, 95, 

ill. 84, (color plate) 112 

Lawrence, James.(legend) 227 

Leeward Islands. 5 


Page 

Leopard Shark. 193 

Life on the Grand Banks: An Account of the Sailor- 
Fishermen Who Harvest the Shoal Waters of 
North America’s Eastern Coasts. By Frederick 

William Wallace. 225 

“Lion, Tiger and Elephant Trinity”. 31 

Loading Sardines: New Brunswick.ill. 20 

Lobster, American (//omarKj am^nVanwj). . 15, 16-17, 19,21, 

67, 69, 159, (color plate) 54 

Lobster carries its eggs. How.7, 25, 27, ill. ii 

Lobster industry.24, 25, 27, ill. 13, 26, 67 

Lobster meat, Canning.ill. 13 

Lobster, Spiny or Crawfish {Panulirus argus) .159, 


(color plate) 153 


Lockeport, Nova Scotia: Herring industry.ill. 12, 58 

London Zoological Gardens. 90 

Long Island, N. Y.27, 163, 216 

Long-nosed Gar. 90 

Lumpfish a marketable fish.5, 229 

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.225, 228 

Lung-fish, Australian. 90 


M 


Mackerel {Scomber scombrus).. .S, 9, 15, 27, 59, (color plate) 44 

Mackerel Shark. 173 

Mackerel, Spanish (Scomberomorus maculatus) .139, 

(color plate) 149 

McDougall, Kenneth, Estate of.ill. 89 

McCloud River, Calif. 205 

McCloud River Rainbow Trout {Salmo irideus shasta) .100, 

(color plate) 118 

Madras (India) Fisheries Bureau. 170 

Maine, Coast of..24, 27 

Man-eating Shark. 173 

Man-of-War, Portuguese {Pkysalia arethusa) .174, 

(color plate) 178 

Mangrove Snapper. 191 

Margate Fish {Haemiilon album) .139, (color plate) 148 

Maritime Provinces of Canada.195, 228 

Marlin or Spearfish {Tetraptarus imperator) .135, 183, 

(color plate) 157 

Matching fingers for barrels of fish: “Mora”.ill. 24 

Medina Lake, Texas.(legend) 84 

Menhaden.8, 17, 27, 214 

Menhaden industry.ill. 56 

Merrimac River. 24 

Miami Aquarium, Miami Beach, Fla.. . 139, 159, 194, ill. 165,184 

Miami Beach, Fla.33, 133, 139, 140, 162, 163, 189, 194, 

ill. 165, 184 

Miami, Fla.187, ill. 134, 161 

Milt and eggs removed from fish for artificial propagation . . 205, 

ill. 34, 211 

Minnows are food supply of larger fish.77, 89 

Mississippi River system. Fish of.77, 79, 84, 87, 88, 89, 

90, 195, ill. 94, 102 

Mola, or Giant Sunfish.. . 130 

Mollusks.89, 213, 214, 216-217, 218-219, 222-224 

Monk-fish a marketable fish. 229 

Moon Fish {Selene vomer) .136-137, (color plate) 147 

“Mora”: Finger matching game.ill. 24 

Moray, Green (Lycodontis funebris).. 16}, 167, (color plate) 177 

Mosquito Coast of Central America. 142 

Mountain of oyster shells.ill 222 

Mouse Fish, naturally protected from enemies.173, 174 

Mowbray, Louis L. 170 

Mowbray, Louis L. Certain Citizens of the Warm Sea.... 127 

Mud Minnows a fish-eating fish. 89 

Mudfish, or Bowfin. 89, 90 

Mullet (Mugil cephalus) .35, 71, 195, (color plate) 75 

Muskellunge {Esox masquinongy).. .31, 89, 90, 105-106, ill. 103 

Murayama, Hashime (Artist).(color plates) 39-54, 72-76, 

111-126, 143-158, 175-182 

Muskellunge, Lake Chautauqua {Esox ohiensis) .105-106, 

ill. 105, (color plate) 121 

Mussel industry.84, 87 

Mussels.19. 29, 81, 84, 87, 89, 217 

Mutton Fish {Lutianus analis) 139, 171, ill. 134, (color plate) 144 


N 


Nassau Grouper {Epinephelus striatus)... (color plate) 145 

Naugatuck River, Conn. 24 

Nekton, actively swimming animal life. 130 

Nets......76, ill. 4, 14, 18, 62, 64, 70, 207 

New Brunswick, Loading Sardines at.ill. 20 

New England, Coast of.27, 163, 195, 228 

New England lobster fishery. Saving the.ill. 26 

New Jersey, Coast of.,.24, 27, 163 

New York Aquarium...'.90, 93, 171 

New York Zoological Society. 170 

Newfoundland.228, 229, ill. 17 

Newfoundland Banks.i, 195 

Niagara Falls, Fishing below.ill. 83 

Nichols, Dr. John T. Curious Inhabitants of the Gulf 

Stream. 163 










































































































































242 


INDEX FOR THE BOOK OF FISHES 


Page 

Nichols, Dr. JohnT. 3° 

Nicola River, British Columbia. 5 

Nipigon River, Canada.ill- 88 

Noises made by fish. 3 S» 132, 184 

Nomeus (fish) as decoy. I 74 

North Atlantic fisheries. ... i, 27 

North Sea, Sturgeon caught in. ..ill. 37 

Northamptonshire, Eng., Aquarium at. 9° 

Nova Scotia.. .225, 228, ill. 9, 12, 18, 31, 57, 58 

Nova Scotia fisherman hauling in his net, A.ill. 2 

Nurse Shark. 191 

Nushagak Bay, Alaska.211, 212 

Nushagak River, Alaska.209, 211 


O 


Oceanic Bonitos.. I 74 

Octopus {Octopus americanus).. . . 187, ill. 165, (color plate) 156 

Octopus, Giant {Octopus punctatus) . 187 

Oilskins, Fishermen in....ill. 237 

Ojibway Indian fishing: Minnesota.....ill. 82 

“Oldwench” nickname for Queen Trigger-Fish.(legend) 179 

“Oldwife” nickname for Queen Trigger-Fish.(legend) 179 

Qrfe, Golden. 9 ° 

Our Heritage of the Fresh Waters. By Charles 

Haskins Townsend. 77 

Oviparous Fishes.. . 7 

Oyster, Anatomy of the.ill. 214 

Oyster crop, Japanese.jH. 215 

Oyster encumbered with a mass of eggs of the Whelk.. .ill. 215 


217, 220-222 

Oysters: A Leading Fishery Product. By Hugh M. 

Smith. 213 


P 


Pacific Salmon {Oncorhynchus) .91, 197, 198, I 99 , 200, 202, 

203, ill. 210, 211 

Packing Sardines.ill. 23 

Parker, G. H... 3° 

Parrot-Fish, Rainbow {Pseudoscarus guacamaia) .163, 164, 

(color plate) 182 

Passaic River. 35 

Perch a food fish. 77 > 89 

Perch, Pike- {Stizostedion vitreum) .89, 109, 195, 

(color plate) 125 

Perch, White {Morone americana). .Sg, 96-97, (color plate) 115 

Perch, Yellow {Perea jiavescens) .90, 109, ill. 96, 

(color plate) 124 

Perry, Oliver Hazzard.(legend) 227 

Peterson, Captain. 189 

Philadelphia, Pa....29, 35, 127 

Pickerel, Eastern {Esox reticulatus) .31, 89, loo-ioi, 

(color plate) 119 

Pike {Esox lucius) ... .31, 77, 89, loi, 104, (color plate) 119 

Pike, Gar, has a lung-like air bladder. 13 

Pike-perch {Stizostedion vitreum) .89, 109, 195, 

(color plate) 125 

Pilgrim Fathers,. .(legend) 227 

Pilot, Cow or Sergeant Major {Abudefduf saxatilis ).... 164, 183, 

184, (color plate) 182 

Pilot-fish, Remoras erroneously called. 183 

Plankton, a minute mass of plant and animal life.25, 130 

Planting fish.ill. 91, 107 

Pollock {Pollachius virens) .9, 27, 29, 37-38, 229, 

(color plate) 39 

Pompano, a food fish. 137 

Porcupine Fish.166, ill. 170 

Pork Fish {Anisotremus virginicus) .164, (color plate) 175 

Porpoises.173, 191, ill. 131, 135 

Port Logan, Scotland.ill. 89 

Porto Rico, Island of. 170 

Portuguese Man-of-War {Physalia arethusa) .174, 

(color plate) 178 

Potomac River.24, (legend) 221 

Pound nets. Fish catching device. 77 

Predaceous fishes. 183 

Prehistoric fish, Remains of.27, ill. 7 

Prominent Species of the Middle Atlantic Coastal 

Waters . 69 

Propagation of fishes. Artificial.25, 205, ill. 31, 91, 107 

Protozoa, Qne-celled. 27 

Puffer or Swell-fish.166, 167, ill. 141 

Puget Sound.199, 200, 201, 202, 213 


Q 


Queen Trigger-Fish {Balistes vetula) .166, (color plate) 179 

Quero Bank, off Nova Scotia. 236 

Quinnat Salmon..195, 199 


R 

Rainbow Parrot-Fish {Pseudoscarus guacamaia) .163, 164, 

(color plate) 182 


Page 

Rainbow Trout..’. ^5 

Raritan River, N. J. 35 

Ray family. Member of... .... ill. 100 

Red Grouper {Epxnephelus worio) .I 39 > (color plate) 145 

Red Salmon. 209 

Red Snapper, a food fish._. . . I 73 

Red Tunny, Mystery about spawning grounds of. 9 

Remains of prehistoric fish._.27, ill. 7 

Remora, or Shark Sucker.183, ill. 68, (color plate) 180 

Reptiles....’n 

Rescuing fish from a Mississippi River swamp..ill. 94 

Retort cooking canned salmon.ill. 208 

Rio Grande. 195 

River, India.(legend) 160 

Rivers, American.5, 24, 35, 36, 77, I 99 > 203, 209, 221, 

ill. 80, 88, 203, 204 

Rock Bass {Ambloplites rupestris) .89, 90, 9.5~96, ill- loi, 

(color plate) 113 

Rock Beauty {Holacanthus tricolor). . 164, 165, (color plate) 176 

Rock Fish or Grouper family.. .(color plates) 145-146 

Rock Hind {Epinephelus adscensionis) .164—165, 

(color plate) 180 


Rosefishes. 7 

Royal Sturgeon caught in North Sea.ill. 37 

Runner or Yellow Jack {Caranx ruber).... 140, (color plate) 155 

Russian fishermen.ill. 15 

Russian names for Salmon. 195 

Russian Sterlets. go 


S 


Sacramento River, Calif.199, 203, 209 

“Sacred Codfish” in the Boston State House.195, ill. 3 

Sailboats.ill. 16, 26, 28, 33, 34, 66, 197, 221, 222, 22^229, 

231-233,236,237 

Sailfish {Istiophorus nigricans) .130, 131, 133, 142, ill. 136, 

(color plate) 154 

St. Dunstan’s Church, London: Blessing the fish of the sea . ill. 6 

St. John’s, Newfoundland, Cleaning fish at.ill. 17 

St. Johns River, Fla. 195 

St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia.ill. 18 

St. Pierre, Island of.v.236, ill. 36 

Salmon, America’s Most Valuable Fish. By Hugh M. 

Smith. 195 

Salmon, Atlantic {Salmo salar) .5, 8, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30, 63, 

91, (color plate) 50 

Salmon, Chinook.5, 195, ill. 196, 201 

Salmon eggs ready for shipment.ill. 200 

Salmon industry.30, 199, 200, 201, 205, 209-212, ill. 30, 

197, 200, 201, 207, 208 

Salmon, Pacific (OnrorAyncAitr).91, 197, 198, 199, 200, 

202, 203, ill. 210, 211 

Salmon packed for shipping...ill. 30 

San Francisco Bay.223, ill. 220 

Sand Dab naturally protected from enemies. I.IS 

Sand Flounder, pale-colored. 184 

Santa Catalina, Calif. 33 

Sardine industry.ill. 20, 23 

Sardines, Tuna feeding on.ill. 169 

Sargassum, Drifting. 173 

Saugatuck River, Conn. 24 

Sauger {Stizostedion canadense) .109, (color plate) 125 

Sawfish.7, ill. 130, 161 

Sawfish, Female, taken alive.ill. 130 

Schooners, Fishing-.ill. 226, 229-233, 236-237 

School of Porpoise migrating, A.ill. 135 

Schroon River, Chestertown, N. Y.(legend) 96 

Scotland.91, ill. 89 

Sculpins are unmarketable.17, 235 

Scup {Stenotomus chrysops) .27, 63, (color plate) 49 

Sea Bass {Centropristes striatus). .. .37, 70, 164, (color plate) 73 

Sea Catfish. 137 

Sea-cucumber, or Sea-pudding a Holothurian. 131 

Sea-drum, Sound made by. 184 

Sea-fan, Beautifully tinted.ill. 138 

Sea Horse {Hippocampus) .7, 165-166, (color plate) 178 

Sea-pudding, or Sea-cucumber a Holothurian. 131 

Sea Robins. 17 

Sea Tiger, The—A Barracuda.134, 137, 139, 167, 170, 

ill. 134, 168, (color plate) 143 

Sea Turtles.(color plate) 158 

Sea-urchins protected by movable quills.ill. 138 

Sergeant Major or Cow Pilot {Abudefduf saxatilis).. 1G4, 183, 

184, (color plate) 182 

Sex of fish. 93 

Shad {Alosa sapidissima) .5, 8, 23, 24, 30, 59-60, 77, 195, 

(color plate) 46 

Shark and his deadhead passenger.ill. 68 

Shark Sucker {Echeneis naucrates), ill. 68,(color plate) 180 

Sharks.7, 8, 137, 173, 174, 183, 191, 193 

Sheepshead {Archosargus probatocephalus) .31, 71, 

(color plate) 75 

Shellfish.. 167 

Shells, Mountain of oyster.ill. 222 

Shiners are food for fish.77, 89 

Shipping fish.29, ill. 30 












































































































































INDEX FOR THE BOOK OF FISHES 


243 


Page 

Short-nosed Gar. 90 

Shoshone Falls, Idaho.(legend) 97 

Shrimm used as bait.35, 37, 174 

Siam, Fighting fish of. 15 

Silver or Coho Salmon. 199 

Silver Hake known as Whiting.(legend) 43 

Silver King or Tarpon ( Tarpon atlanticus) .31. 35- I31. I33. 

136, 183, 191, ill. 128, 133, 137, (color plate) 152 

Silversides.89, 163 

Skate.229, 23s 

Skeena River, British Columbia.209, ill. 207 

Skippers on fishing schooners... .232, 233, 235, 236, 238, ill. 233 

Skykomish River, Wash., Fishing in.ill. 80 

Small-mouth Black Bass {Micropterus dolomieu) .95. ill. 87, 

(color plate) 112 

Smelt {Osmerus mordax) .24, 65, (color plate) 52 

Smith, Hugh M. Oysters: A Leading Fishery Product.... 213 
Smith, Hugh M. Salmon. America’s Most Valuable Fish.. 195 

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.I9, 27 

Snails are fish food. 89 

Snake River.(legend) 204 

Snake River basin...(legend) 97 

Snapper family 164, 171, 173, 191, 195, ill. 141, (color plate) 144 

Sockeye Salmon.199, 200 

Soldato or Squirrel Fish (Holocentrus ascensionis) .173, 

(color plate) 175 

Sound, Croaking or grunting, made by Yellow Grunts 

(legend) 132, 184 

Sound made by Sea-drum. 184 

Sound made by Trumpet-fish. 184 

Sound made by Weakfish, or “Drummer”. 35 

Spade Fish or White Angel {Chaetodipterus faber) .163, 

(color plate) 176 

Spanish Hogfish or Lady-fish.ill. 170 

Spanish Mackerel {Scomberomorus maculatus) .139, 

(color plate) 149 

“Spat” or young oysters attached to oyster shell.ill. 217 

Spawning habits of fish.5, 7, 199, 201-202 

Spearfish or Marlin (Tetrapturus imperator) .135, 183, 

(color plate) 157 

Species of the Middle Atlantic Costal Waters, Prom¬ 
inent . 69 

Speckled Beauty, Three-pound (fish).ill. 88 

Spiller net.ill. 18 

Spiny Lobster or Crawfish {Panulirus argus 159, (color plate) 153 
Spotted Catfish {Ictalurus punctatus). .93, 95, (color plate) iii 

Spotted Hind. 165 

Spotted Sting Ray, or Whip Ray.216, 220, ill. 166 

Spoonbill. 89 

Spring, or Tyee Salmon. 195 

Squeteague, Common (Cynoscton regalis) .9, 24, 27, 31, 35, 

69, 19s, ill. 70, (color plate) 72 

Squirrel Fish or Soldato (Holocentrus ascensionis) .173, 

(color plate) 175 

Squirrel Hake {Uropkycis chuss) .56, (color plate) 43 

Stack of fish in Nova Scotia, A four-ton.ill. 57 

Starfish.ill. 138, 216 

Sterlets, Russian. 90 

Sticklebacks a fish-eating fish.5,89 

Sting Ray, Spotted, or Whip Ray.216, 220, ill. 166 

Stockade, Oyster, San Francisco Bay.216, 223, ill. 220 

Stone-cat a fish-eating fish.. 89 

Stone, Livingstone.205 

Striped Bass {Roccus lineatus) .5, 24, 31, 35, 36, 69-70, 90, 

(color plate) 72 

Sturgeon, Common (Acipenser sturio) .5, 7, 55-56, 77, 

(color plate) 42 

Sturgeon industry.ill. 10, 37 

Sturgeon, Lake {Acipenser rubicund us) 104—105, (color plate) 120 

Sturgeon, Largest caught in North Sea.ill. 37 

Sucker, Shark {Echeneis naucrates). 183, ill. 68, (color plate) 180 

Suckers eat Mollusks...77. 89 

Suckley, Dr. George . 195 

Summer Flounder {Paralichihys dentatus) .i, 27, 38, 55, 

(color plate) 40 

Sunfish.77, 89, 130, ill. 134 

Surf Fishing.Frontispiece 

Susquehanna River. 24 

“Swapping Whoppers” (fish stories).ill. 140 

Swell-fish or Puffer.166, 167, ill. 141 

Swordfish {Xiphias gladius) .63, 65, ill. 66, (color plate) 51 


T 


Tackle, Fishing.31, 35, 37. 88, ill. 32, 70, 78, 80, 82, 96, 97, 188 

Tagging fish. Gentle art of.9, ii, ill. 8 

Tarpon doing a fin spring.ill. 128 

Tarpon or Silver King ( Tarpon atlanticus) . 3 i, 3 S,i 3 i, I 33 . 

136, 183, 191. ill. 128, 133, 137, (color plate)i52 

Taste, Sense of, lacking in fish. ii 

Tautog {Tautoga onitis) .31, 61, (color plate) 48 

Terrapin.88, 142 

Thames River, Conn. 24 

Thompson, Capt. Charles H.162, 189, 191, 193 

“The Tiger of the Sea,” Barracuda called.134, 137-138, 

167, 170, ill. 134, 168, (color plate) 143 


Page 

Tiger Shark. 191 

Tilefish {Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps) .29, 65, 67, 127, 130, 

(color plate) 53 

Top Minnows. 89 

Tortoise shell.142, 191 

Towing an 800 pound Tuna to port.ill. 60 

Townsend, Charles Haskins. Our Heritage of the Fresh 

Waters. 77 

Townsend, Charles Haskins. 30 

Trigger-Fish, Queen {Batistes vetula) .166, (color plate) 179 

“Trinity, Lion, Tiger and Elephant”. 31 

Trout a food fish.77, 195 

Trout, Brook {Salvelinusfontinalis)g7, 99, ill. 9S,(color plate) 116 

Trout, European. 90 

Trout, Lake (CriViiVomifr nam(2ycMj4)29,99-100,(color plate) 117 
Trout, McCloud River Rainbow {Salmo irideus shasta) .... 100, 

(color plate) i r8 

Trout, Rainbow.ill. 85 

Trout, Yellowstone {Salmo lezvisi) .ill. 79, 97 

Trumpet-fish, Sound made by. 184 

Trunkfish,Buffalo (Z,<2c<o^Aryj-Iri^onMr)i66-i67,(color plate) 179 

Tuna {Thunnus thynnus) .29, 31, 33, 35, 59, ill. 18, 31, 33, 

60, 169, (color plate) 45 

Tuna, Allison’s {Thunnus allisoni) .140-142 

Tuna industry.ill. 18, 31, 33, 60 

Tunny, Red. 9 

Turtle Grass {Zostera marina) .(legend) 158 

Turtle, Green {Chelonia mydas) .142, (color plate) 158 

Turtle, Hawksbill {Eretmochelys imbricata) .142, 159, 191, 

(color plate) 158 

Turtles.87, 88, 183 

Turtles, Sea.142, (color plate) 158 

Tyee, or Spring Salmon. 195 


U 


U-boat, Barracuda resembles a. 137 

Unloading Halibut, Boston.ill. 28 

Unloading Herring, Lockeport, Nova Scotia.ill. 58 

U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Work of.9, ii, 19, 25, 30, 79, 

84, 203, 205, 210, 211, 223, 224, ill. 26, 34, 91 

V 


Vipan, Captain.. 90 

Virginia Capes, Drying nets near.ill. 62 

Viviparous Fishes. 7 


W 


Wahoo, a game fish.. .. 131 

Walbaum, Dr., German physician. 195 

Wall-eyed Pike... 89 

Wall, Fish scaling a seven-foot.ill. 160 

Wallace, Frederick William. Life on the Grand Banks: 

An Account of the Sailor-Fishermen Who Harvest the 

Shoal Waters of North America’s Eastern Coasts. 225 

Walton, Izaak.35, 81, 159 

Weakfish, or Squeteague.9, 24, 27, 31, 35, 69, 195, ill. 70, 

(color plate) 72 

Weir trap. Loading Sardines from.ill. 20 

West Indian Conch {Strombus gigantus) .130-131 

West Indies.140, 142 

Whales...8, 173, ill. 162 

Whelk, Eggs of the, encumbering Oysters.ill. 215 

Whip Ray, or Spotted Sting Ray.ill. 166 

White Angel or Spade Fish {Chaetodipterus faber) .163, 

(color plate) 176 

White Bass a fish-eating fish. 89 

White Perch {Morone americana).. .89, 96-97, (color plate) 115 

Whitefish, Common (Cor^gOMM/c/M;^^iyorwij).77, 90, 93, 

106-107, 195, ill. 104, (color plate) 122 

Whiting {Merluccius bilinearis) .27, 57, 229, (color plate) 43 

Willapa Bay, Wash. 223 

Williams, Stephen R. i 

Winter fishing...ill. 86 

Winter Flounder {Pseudopleuronectes americanus) .i, 38, 55, 

(color plate) 40 

Wolf-fish. 229 

Wolf of the Sea, Killer Whale, the Great.137, ill. 162 

Woman fishing.ill. 70 

Wood River, Mass.211,212 

Wrasse changes color.183-184 


Y 


Yacht: L’Apache. 189 

Yellow Grunt.185, ill. 132, (color plate) i8i 

Yellow Jack, or Runner {Caranx ruber).. . i40,(color plate) 155 
Yellow Perch {Perea flavescens).go, 109, ill. 96,(color plate) 124 
Yellow Tail {Ocyurus chrysurus) .130, 173, (color plate) 181 


Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park.ill. 79 

Yellowstone Trout {Salmo lewisi) . 11 . 79, 97 

Yukon River, Alaska.5, 199, 204 




































































































































NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 

GEOGRAPHIC ADMINISTRATION BUILDINGS 
SIXTEENTH AND M STREETS NORTHWEST, WASHINGTON, D. C. 


GILBERT GROSVENOR, President 
JOHN OLIVER LA GORGE, Vice-President 
JOHN JOY EDSON, Treasurer 
BOYD TAYLOR, Assistant Treasurer 


HENRY WHITE, Vice-President 

O. P. AUSTIN, Secretary 

GEO. W. HUTCHISON, Associate Secretary 

EDWIN P. GROSVENOR, General Counsel 


FREDERICK V. COVILLE, Chairman Committee on Research 


EXECUTIVE STAFF OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 

Gilbert Grosvenor, Editor 

JOHN OLIVER LA GORGE, Associate Editor 

WILLIAM J. SHOWALTER RALPH A. GRAVES FRANKLIN L. FISHER 

Assistant Editor Assistant Editor Chief of Illustrations Division 

J. R. HILDEBRAND, Chief of School Service 


Board of Trustees 


CHARLES J. BELL 

President American Security and Trust 
Company 

JOHN JOY EDSON 

Chairman of the Board, Washington 
Loan & Trust Company 

DAVID FAIRCHILD 
In Charge of Agricultural Explorations, 
U. S. Department of Agriculture 

C. HART MERRIAM 
Member National Academy of Sciences 


WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 
Chief Justice of the United States 

GRANT SQUIRES 

Military Intelligence Division, General 
Staff, New York 

C. M. CHESTER 

Rear Admiral U. S. Navy, Formerly 
Supt. U. S. Naval Observatory 

FREDERICK V. COVILLE 
Botanist, U. S. Department of Agri¬ 
culture 


JOHN BARTON PAYNE 
Chairman American Red Cross 

J. HOWARD GORE 

Professor Emeritus Mathematics, The 
George Washington University 

A. W. GREELY 

Arctic Explorer, Major General U. S. 
Army 

GILBERT GROSVENOR 

Editor of National Geographic Magazine 


O. P. AUSTIN 
Statistician 

GEORGE R. PUTNAM 

Commissioner U. S. Bureau of Light¬ 
houses 

GEORGE SHIRAS, 30 

Formerly Member U. S. Congress, 
Faunal Naturalist, and Wild-game 
Photographer 

E. LESTER JONES 

Director U. S. Coast and Geodetic 
Survey 


RUDOLPH KAUFFMANN 
Managing Editor The Evening Star 

JOHN FOOTE, M.p. 

Professor of Pediatrics, Georgetown 
University 

S. N. D. NORTH 

Formerly Director U. S. Bureau of 
Census 

JOHN OLIVER LA GORGE 
Associate Editor National Geographic 
Magazine 


GEORGE OTIS SMITH 

Director U. S. Geological Survey 

O. H. TITTMANN 

Formerly Superintendent L^. S. Coast 
and Geodetic Survey 

HENRY WHITE 

Member American Peace Commission, 
Formerly U. S. Ambassador to France, 
Italy, etc. 

STEPHEN T. MATHER 

Director National Park Service 


Organized for “The Increase and Diffusion of Geographic Knowledge” 


TO carry out the purposes for which it was founded 
thirty-six years ago, the National Geographic 

Society publishes the National Geographic Magazine. All 
receipts are invested in the Magazine itself or expended directly 
to promote geographic knowledge. 

ARTICLES and photographs are desired. For 
material which the Magazine can use, generous 

remuneration is made. Contributions should be accompanied 
by an addressed return envelope and postage. 

IMMEDIATELY after the terrific eruption of the 
world’s largest crater, Mt. Katmai, in Alaska, a 

National Geographic Society expedition was sent to make 
observations of this remarkable phenomenon. Four expeditions 
have followed and the extraordinary scientific data resultant 
given to the world. In this vicinity an eighth wonder of the 
world was discovered and explored—“The Valley of Ten Thou¬ 
sand Smokes,” a vast area of steaming, spouting fissures. As a 
result of The Society’s discoveries this area has been created 
a National Monument by proclamation of the President of the 
United States. 

AT an expense of over $50,000 The Society sent a 
notable series of expeditions into Peru to investigate 
the traces of the Inca race. Their discoveries form a large 


share of our knowledge of a civilization waning when Pizarro 
first set foot in Peru. 

THE Society also had the honor of subscribing a 
substantial sum to the expedition of x'\dmiral Peary, 
who discovered the North Pole. 

NOT long ago The Society granted $25,ocx), and in 
addition'$75,ooo was given by individual members 

to the Government when the congressional appropriation for the 
purchase was insufficient, and the finest of the giant sequoia 
trees of California were thereby saved for the American people. 

THE Society is conducting extensive explorations 
and excavations in northwestern New Mexico, which 

was one of the most densely populated areas in North America 
before Columbus came, a region where prehistoric peoples lived 
in vast communal dwellings and whose customs, ceremonies, 
and name have been engulfed in an oblivion. 

THE Society also is maintaining expeditions in the 
unknown area adjacent to the San Juan River in 
southeastern Utah, in Yunnan, Kweichow, and Kansu, China, 
at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, probably the largest cave 
yet discovered in America, and at Cuicuilco, Mexico, where the 
relics of inhabitants of America 7,000 years ago are being 
revealed. 









OTHER AUTHORITATIVE PUBLICATIONS 


THE CAPITAL 
OF OUR COUNTRY 

By Charles Moore, 

Chief Justice William Howard Taft, 
Gilbert Grosvenor, J. R. Hildebrand, 
and the late Viscount James Bryce 
16 full-page color plates, ii8 black and white en¬ 
gravings; 1 maps; 154 pages 
Royal octavo (/ x 10 in.) Cloth., $j. 


SCENES FROM 
EVERY LAND 

(Fourth Series) 

By Gilbert Grosvenor 

. 200 full-page illustrations, 24 in 4 colors; 20,000 
words of text 

Royal octavo (7 10 in.) Cloth, $2. 


THE VALLEY OF 
TEN THOUSAND SMOKES 

By Robert F. Griggs 

Leader, Katmai-Alaska Expeditions of the National 
Geographic Society 

262 engravings and color plates; 7 Special Maps; 
350 pages 

Royal octavo (7 .v 10 in.) Cloth, $j. 


WILD ANIMALS OF NORTH 
AMERICA 

By Edward W. Nelson 
Paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes 
127 full-color portraits; 86 photographs and track 
sketches; 240 pages 
Royal octavo (7 x 10 in.) Buckram, $j. 


THE BOOK OF DOGS THE STORY OF THE HORSE 


Paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes 
100 exceptional dog portraits in color; 27 half¬ 
tones; 96 pages 

Royal octavo (7 a 10 in.) Buckram, $2. 


By Major General William Harding Carter 
24 color portraits by Edward Herbert Miner; 
60 engravings; no pages 
Royal octavo (7 ^ 10 in.) Buckram 


FLAGS OF THE WORLD 

By Commander Byron McCandless, U. S. N., and 
Gilbert Grosvenor 

1,200 flags in full colors; 300 insignia of American 
armed forces; 142 pages 
Royal octavo (7 x lO in.) Buckram or Khaki, $2. 


THE BOOK OF BIRDS 

By Henry W. Henshaw 
Paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes 
250 subjects in full color; 58 other illustrations; 
200 pages 

Royal octavo x 10 in.) Buckram, $j. 


All books postpaid in United States; foreign postage 2y cents additional 


MAPS FOR WALL AND DESK USE 

The Society also makes available its New Map of the United States (28 x 38 inches); New Map of 
North America (27 x 36 inches); Map of the New Europe (30X 33 inches); New Map of Asia (28 x 36 inches); 
New Map of South America (25 x 35 inches); New Map of Africa (28 x 32 inches); New Map of the Countries 
of the Caribbean (23F2 x 42 inches); and New Map of the World (27 x 40 inches), paper, $i each; on map 
linen, $1.^0 each. Also, Races of Europe Map (20 x 24 inches), paper, 2y cents; linen, $i; Map of the Islands 
of the Pacific (18 x 24 inches), paper, 50 cents; linen, $1; Map of the Western Theater of War (26 x 31 
inches), paper, 50 cents; linen, 75 cents; Map of Mexico (1916) (19x28 inches), paper, 25 cents; linen, 75 
cents, and Map of Alaska (1914) (15 x 20 inches), paper, 50 cents. 

All Maps in Colors postpaid in United States; foreign postage 25 cents additional. 


BOUND VOLUMES OF THE 

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 

A limited number of bound volumes of The Geographic are available, begin¬ 
ning with the year 1921; six numbers to the volume, two volumes to the year. 

Bound in half morocco, $5 per volume. 

Postpaid in the United States; foreign postage 75 cents additional. 

A Pamphlet descriptive of The Society’s Panoramas 
and Pictures suitable for framing sent upon request. 

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 

HUBBARD MEMORIAL HALL WASHINGTON, D. C., U. S. A. 























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N. MANCHESTER, 
Sas^ INDIANA 46962 


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